The United States' longest war now has no end in sight.
US President Donald Trump has outlined a new strategy, reneging on his pre-election promise to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan in a bid to boost the fight against the Taliban.
His words were welcomed by the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani.
"Today is a special day because a few hours ago the United States President delivered his speech. I hope that you all have heard his speech. His message was that after this, there is no limited time or conditions on their support for Afghanistan. America will stand with Afghanistan until the end."
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the new strategy is a departure from Barack Obama's policy in Afghanistan, which focused on a "time-based approach."
He says the Trump strategy will be "conditions-based."
"I think the President has been quite clear that what will be different this time, is he has empowered our military commanders on the ground to make more timely decisions to conduct battlefield operations based upon the conditions on the ground with the battle plans that Secretary of Defence Mattis will be approving."
Details of the plan are not yet known but US officials say the President has approved 4,000 more troops, a fifty per cent increase on the 8,400 already on the ground.
US Defence Secretary James Mattis says he's waiting for details from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before he makes a decision on exactly how many troops will be dispatched.
"When he brings that to me I will determine how many more we need to send in. It may or may not the number that is bandied about - it all comes down to the execution and we will have to stand and deliver on this."
In his announcement, President Trump singled out US ally Pakistan, accusing it of backing the Taliban.
Pakistan has hit back in a statement from the country's Foreign Office, saying it is:
"...disappointing that the US policy statement ignores the enormous sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in this effort."
China has stepped in to defend Pakistan, saying the country "is on the front line in the struggle against terrorism."
But Secretary of State Tillerson has reinforced the President's warning to Pakistan, saying the country is central to achieving peace in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan, in particular, can play an important role here, certainly in delivering the Taliban to the negotiating table. We stand ready to help Pakistan address terrorist organisations inside their country but they must, they must adopt a different approach themselves."
Retired Australian Major General Jim Molan, a regular commentator on security issues, has told the ABC Mr Tillerson's comments about negotiating with the Taliban are "totally logical."
"99.9 per cent of wars end in negotiation. Rarely is there a decisive victory on one side or the other. There's an old saying that you can't kill your way to victory in a counterinsurgency, counter-terrorist conflict, but you can kill your way to the negotiating table. And people will not negotiate when they think they have a victory."
But he says to achieve this, the US will need the support of its allies, and Australia should step in to help.
"Now I don't care who provides the troops, as long as someone does, to assist the Americans. They've been carrying the can for a long, long time. We've got the capacity and quality. I believe for a whole bunch of reasons we should support the Americans in this."
Defence Minister Marise Payne has said there's no plan to send Australian troops back to Afghanistan, but she has not ruled it out.
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