The United States is transferring 1.5 billion US dollars originally meant for the Afghan security forces and the Pakistan military to a fund to help pay for construction of the US-Mexican border wall.

According to acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan, the funds were culled from a variety of sources, to include unexecuted prior year funds, the suspension of reimbursements to Pakistan, and costs reductions in a series of contracts.

More than 600 million US dollars of these funds come from an Afghan security forces account. The US is also taking 78 million US dollars from the Coalition Support Fund, which is the money used to reimburse Pakistan for logistical and military support for American military operations in Afghanistan.