Pentagon: 2,600 more troops in Afghanistan than previously reported

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday there are about 2,600 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan than it previously reported.

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. said there are about 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, not the 8,400 figure the Department of Defense previously gave.

"The number 11,000 is an approximation. It may be slightly above that, it may be slightly below that, it will certainly vary," he said.

The increased number isn't because more troops have been deployed in recent days, though, and is not reflective of President Donald Trump's authorization of a larger deployment last week. Those reinforcements could reach 3,900 troops.

Eleven-thousand troops has been "the reality over the last six months or so," McKenzie said.

"No troops have started to flow. No deployment orders have been issued," he said of Trump's . "Should that number change significantly," he said, "we will come back in here to tell you that."

Politico described the discrepancy between the previously publicly acknowledged troop numbers and the actual numbers as an "open secret."

Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered a review of how troops are counted earlier this year.

"There's a very strange accounting procedure I inherited," Mattis told reporters last week.