Jan. 30 (UPI) — A government watchdog report released late on Monday says the Pentagon is withholding information that shows insurgent control is growing in Afghanistan, despite the effort of the U.S. military’s nearly two decade-long war there.
The report found that the Defense Department has restricted data on the number of districts and people living in territories under insurgent or government control.
“The number of districts controlled or influenced by the Afghan government had been one of the last remaining publicly available indicators for members of Congress…and for the American public of how the 16-year-long U.S. effort to secure Afghanistan is faring,” said John Sopko, the special inspector general, according to Stars and Stripes.
Prior to the report’s release on Monday, the Department of Defense released district information to NPR, which showed that government control in Afghanistan has decreased, while insurgent control has increased.
“As of October 2017, approximately 56 percent of the country’s 407 districts are under Afghan government control or influence, 30 percent remain contested and approximately 14 percent are now under insurgent control or influence,” said Navy Capt. Tom Gresback, a U.S. military spokesman.
Those figures represent a substantial decrease from November 2015, when the Afghan government controlled 72 percent of territories, insurgents held 7 percent and 21 percent were contested, according to the Department of Defense data.
“This development is troubling for a number of reasons, not least of which is that this is the first time [the inspector general’s office] has been specifically instructed not to release information marked ‘unclassified’ to the American taxpayer,” Sopko said, according to Voice of America.
Congress has already appropriated $4.9 billion for Afghan forces for this year and $74.8 billion since 2002.
President Donald Trump announced last year that he plans to increase U.S. troop levels and military spending in Afghanistan.
