WASHINGTON: “Why an undertaking begun in 2002 and costing $70 billion has — so far — not yielded bigger dividends?” asks John Sopko, the US government’s special inspector-general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

Mr Sopko also provides the answer in his latest report on Afghanistan, released this week: the failure to build up a strong security force for combating Taliban insurgents.

“The continuing lack of a fully effective Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANDSF) undermines the viability of the Kabul government and impedes US efforts to disengage from combat operations in Afghanistan,” he writes.

The Afghan National Army shrank by 5,000 troops this year, and the Afghan National Police suffered a net loss of 4,000.

Combat casualties, desertions and defections are the main causes for these losses that, according to Mr Sopko’s report, have allowed the Taliban to maintain their insurgency.

The Special Inspector General for Afgh­anistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is an official US agency set up by Congress to audit US spending in Afghanistan. It presents a quarterly report to Congress, which is also released to the media as well.

The report notes that the Afghan government tries to cope with the problem of desertions by recruiting aggressively, but has been unable to stop the bleeding. The report warns that the depletion continues to weaken the very forces that are needed to combat the Taliban.

Mr Sopko also reports that when he visited Afghanistan in October to prepare the latest report, the US military command in Kabul informed him that they can no longer release crucial data about the current strength of the official Afghan forces or about their performance in the fight against the Taliban.

The data withheld from SIGAR include basic information like the number of Afghan troops killed in the war, the exact size of the force, how many people are joining, and the readiness of their equipment.

All this data was made available for previous reports.

A US military spokesman, Navy Capt Tom Gresback, told reporters in Kabul that the information was classified at the request of the Afghan government for operational security reasons.

Yet, the SIGAR report lays out a key metric indicating a dominant trend in the Afghan war: Taliban gradually expanding their influence.

The report notes since 2014, more of the country slipped out of government hands to fall under partial or total Taliban control.

Six months ago, 45 of 407 districts in the country were under full or partial Taliban control, which increased to 54 this year. This trend is also reflected in a steady rise in attacks on Afghan security forces.

A wave of Taliban attacks killed more than 200 Afghan army and police soldiers across Afghanistan last month.

The US and Afghan security forces, however, have responded to these attacks by launching a military offensive, which is taking a heavy toll on insurgent manpower, the reports add.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2017