HELMAND PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN – Despite the ongoing drawdown in Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced today that it will deploy an additional infantry battalion to Helmand Province's second largest city, Camp Bastion, to identify local leaders and carry out counterinsurgency operations.

"Although we are working to responsibly wind down our mission in Afghanistan, the goals of ISAF remains the same: conduct COIN by securing Helmand Province's population centers," ISAF Deputy Commander General Nick Carter announced in a press release.

According to General Carter, the battalion will guard some of the estimated 30,000 men and women in this bustling Afghan municipality, as well as its smaller adjacent city of Camp Leatherneck, which has its own road network, bus service, airport, sewage system, internet cafes, laundry facilities, heliport, mail center, gymnasium, water-bottling plant, and satellite relay network.

It is presided over by a council called the Regional Command Southwest and their tribal elder, Major General W. Lee Miller, II.