The patrols could take place both at sea and by air, said Army Gen. Curtis “Mike” Scaparrotti, who is both NATO’s top military commander and the chief of U.S. European Command. Presently, the alliance works in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea in support of a European Union-led mission on migrant operations, but that could be expanded to focus on areas near Libya and assisting the U.S.-led effort campaign against the Islamic State in other ways, he said.

Scaparrotti left the specifics open but said that the new mission could include counterterrorism operations, maritime surveillance and working with partner forces in the area.

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“We have prepared orders do those kinds of things with our NATO forces, and we’ll just get specific policy guidance and then put out the appropriate orders,” he said. “We will go to nations within NATO and either use the forces we have now or … if we need more go to countries that have those capabilities.”

Scaparrotti spoke to reporters during the second day of a biennial NATO summit attended by President Obama and other world leaders. He said he did not know yet whether the United States will have a role in the new maritime mission, but it could involve both U.S. ships and aircraft. Presently, the USNS Grapple, a salvage ship, is deployed in the Aegean Sea for the migrant mission.

The new mission emerged after NATO leaders at the summit firmed up support for deployments in Afghanistan in 2017 and met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. U.S. administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they expect about 5,500 NATO troops will be there next year in addition to 8,400 U.S. service members that Obama announced recently will deploy.

Obama’s decision deviated from a previous plan to have 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2017. The 8,400 troops will include about 6,700 devoted to the military advising mission known as Resolute Support, with most of the rest devoted to counterterrorism operations through a separate mission known as Freedom’s Sentinel.

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Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said during a media briefing Saturday in Kabul that Obama gave commanders “all the capabilities” they requested to transition American forces back into more offensive posture in America’s longest war. He referred to authorities granted by the president in May to directly target the Taliban, which had been prohibited in recent years unless there was an immediate threat to U.S. troops.

“While the American forces would not be in an offensive role per say, if the Afghan forces are conducting offensive operations, we can support them,” Nicholson said. “Previously, we would support them primarily when they were on a defensive role, so as a commander, working closely with my Afghan comrades, this is a big difference.”

Scaparrotti said he agreed with the new plan and that it will allow the U.S. military to continue training the Afghan air force and commandos in a similar fashion to how it does now. It also will still provide some advising to conventional Afghan forces through expeditionary training teams that each focus on a specific region of the country, but a “little less than what it has been to this point,” the general said.

A senior administration official denied that deploying 8,400 U.S. troops next year is a compromise between keeping the 9,800 there now and shrinking to 5,500 as previously planned. Rather, it came after the top commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., carried out a review and conferred with Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and other senior military leaders.

“I would say that the 8,400 number absolutely reflects what we think the requirement is to execute two missions that the president has decided we will do, which is the counterterrorism mission and TA,” one official said, referring to training and advising. “Full stop. There’s no confusion to it.”