Afghan training goes back to basics as Trump faces U.S. troop decision

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He and a growing number of NATO military advisers have begun spending more time in the field, hoping that grass-roots training will help Afghanistan's armed forces more effectively combat a Taliban insurgency that has gained in strength.

The return to lower-level engagement, after nearly two years during which the emphasis was on backroom operations like budgets, logistics and administration, could lead to an expanded training mission that top NATO commanders in Afghanistan are calling for.

A Romanian military adviser inspects artillery shells before a live-fire exercise with Afghan troops outside Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Josh Smith.

That is one of the choices facing U.S. President Donald Trump, as he considers whether to send more American soldiers to Afghanistan, keep levels as they are or withdraw further from a conflict that is in its 16th year with no end in sight.

In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, amid the wind, smoke and dust of the training area, troops from Romania and the United States teach Afghan officers to better lead and train their own men.

Their work reflects a desire by General John Nicholson, U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, to get back to basics such as coordinating artillery and air support and clearing roadside bombs.

That broader training authority was approved last summer, but with Afghan troops engaged in an increasingly deadly war through 2016, the winter lull in fighting has allowed for a concerted effort to refit and retrain Afghan security forces.

"The further down you can reach the better," U.S. Army Captain Everett Heiney, an adviser in Kandahar, said of the strategy to have advisers return to lower-level Afghan units.