Obama has green-lighted new offensive operations against the Taliban insurgency.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is a NATO enterprise in Afghanistan, will continue at least through 2020. NATO intervened in the land locked war ravaged country in August 2003.
The ISAF will be divided into three sections, commanded by US-, German- and Italian-led contingents.
Together with the 10,000 American troops remaining in country, NATO will maintain six bases as part of a “hub and spoke” military network, centered on the militarized government compound in Kabul and the massive US base at Bagram airfield.
NATO’s commitment to five more years in Afghanistan is the latest in a flurry of signals that the White House is preparing for a new offensive against the entrenched militants Afghanistan and their sponsors in Pakistan. As a natural corollary, President Obama is expected to cancel further reductions of the US troop level in Afghanistan and in fact authorize their expansions.
Last week, Obama green-lighted new offensive operations against the Taliban insurgency. The US Air Force is intensifying bombing raids over Afghanistan, acting under expanded rules of engagement aimed at “shaping the battle-space,” the US Air Force chief of staff told media Wednesday.
The new US Afghanistan Commander, General John Nicholson, is expected to receive still broader authority to launch preemptive strikes against the Islamist militias.
The longstanding and interlocking conflicts between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Pakistan and India, have been thrown into overdrive by the US-India alliance, and were further damaged by the May 21 assassination of Pakistani-backed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
The souring of relations between Washington and Islamabad has encouraged Kabul to pursue historic conflicts with Pakistan. In an apparent effort to contest the Durand Line drawn in 1893, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani forces and construction crews in the Torkham border area on Sunday.The provocation was provided by Islamabad which decided to build a gate at the border post claiming that the move is aimed at checking the entry of terrorists from the Afghan side.
After an attempted truce, Pakistani units began firing artillery over the crossing on Wednesday. The situation remains tense and both sides are reportedly massing forces in the area.