Pentagon to request thousands more troops for Afghanistan next week

The Pentagon will ask the White House next week to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to break a deadlocked fight with the Taliban, a senior official said Thursday.After a steady downsizing of US troop numbers since 2011, US military commanders say they need to strengthen the numbers on the ground to better support Afghan forces and help retake territory lost to the Taliban.According to US media, the Pentagon will ask for 3,000 to 5,000 more soldiers, mainly to be assigned to advise and t