ALMOST 4,000 more US troops could be ordered to Afghanistan in the upcoming weeks, according to a White House leak.

An anonymous official said Defence Secretary General James Mattis could announce the deployment as early as next week.

According to the leaker, most of the new personnel will train Afghan troops to fight the Taliban.

But a small number will carry out counterterrorism operations against the Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) — the new offshoot of the Iraqi death cult and rival to the Taliban.

This follows Mr Trump’s move to grant the defence secretary authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan.

Responding to the leak, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis insisted that “no decisions have been made.”

On Tuesday the defence secretary told the Senate armed services committee that the long-term strategy in Afghanistan was not to defeat the guerillas, but to reduce the insurgency to levels manageable by Afghan security forces.

He envisioned an “era of frequent skirmishing,” with the US providing training, intelligence and “high-end capability” — a possible allusion to air raids.

But with the Taliban now controlling more than half the country, Gen Mattis

admitted that the US and its Nato allies were losing the war.

Spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry Daulat Waziri said the government welcomed the arrival of more US troops.

“The United States knows we are in the fight against terrorism,” he said. “We want to finish this war in Afghanistan with the help of the Nato alliance.”

However lawmaker Nasrullah Sadeqizada expressed concerns over the plans pointing out that the US troops already in Afghanistan were not helping to solve the surge in Taliban activity.

Sending additional troops to the country would be yet another violation of Mr Trump’s campaign promise to avoid foreign intervention.

In April, Gen Mattis — who was granted autonomy to order air strikes earlier in the year by Mr Trump — ordered a giant eight-ton “mother of all bombs” to be dropped on an Isis cave hideout in eastern Afghanistan.

And Mr Trump also ordered the bombing of an army base in Syria in March.