Tillerson, Mattis to visit Pakistan to drill home Trump's message on terror

President Donald Trump will dispatch his top diplomatic and military advisers to Pakistan in the coming weeks, turning up the heat on a nuclear-armed ally accused of harbouring terror groups.

Weeks after Trump angrily accused Islamabad of providing safe haven to "agents of chaos," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to depart for Pakistan late this month.

He will be followed by Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, according to US and Pakistani sources.

The one-two punch is designed to drill home Trump's message that Pakistani state support for jihadist groups has to end, according to officials briefed on the visits.

Washington has long been frustrated by Pakistan's willingness to offer cross-border safe havens to Taliban factions and armed Islamist groups fighting US troops and their Afghan allies.

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Under new Trump strategy, orders for new troop level in Afghanistan signed

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that he has signed orders for deployment of new troops in Afghanistan as part of a new South Asia strategy announced recently by US President Donald Trump.

In an interaction with Pentagon reporters, Mattis, however, refused to give any details of the new troop levels in terms of their numbers, deployment and where they are coming from.

"Yes. I've signed orders but it's not completed. In other words, I've signed some of the troops that will go and we're identifying the specific ones," Mattis said.

Mattis' announcement came a day after the Pentagon disclosed that there are about 11,000 US troops in Afghanistan as against 8,600 announced earlier.

Unveiling his South Asia strategy ten days ago to win the war on terrorism, Trump said he will prolong the US military intervention in Afghanistan, which he had once described as a "complete waste".

Trump acknowledged that his "instincts" told him to pull out troops from Afghanistan.

"Historically, I like following my instincts," Trump said. "A hasty withdrawal," Trump said, would create a "vacuum" for terrorists.

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