The U.S. military has classified data on casualty and attrition rates in the Afghan army and police force on the request of the Kabul Government, says a watchdog group in its report on Tuesday.
According to the quarterly report by the Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the key data, which also includes figures on manpower and the state of equipment, is being withheld for the first time in eight years.
The U.S military told SIGAR that the data belonged to the Afghan government and it must therefore “withhold, restrict, or classify the data as long as the Afghan government has classified it.’’
Report said this was the second time such data had been classified since the watchdog began reporting in 2008
It added that the number of casualties among Afghan forces had been rising as insurgent attacks have increased in recent months.
The SIGAR’s quarterly report in July 2, 531 members of the Afghan security forces were killed and 4,238 were wounded between January and May 8.
The government’s control over districts fell by two per cent from the last reporting period and five per cent compared to the same period in 2016.
As at August, a total of 54 districts were either fully controlled, or heavily influenced by Taliban militants, “an increase of nine districts over the last six months.’’
(Source: dpa/NAN)