Govt. dismisses SIGAR report on Taliban ground gains

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AT-KABUL: The government dismissed a report prepared by the US-based Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) that Taliban are controlling more ground.

Defense ministry spokesman, said Sunday that all the provincial capitals and most of the districts are under government control that is 85 per cent of the ground.

Mohammad Radmanesh said that despite the increase of security threats, Afghan troops had significant advances in most of the provinces.

“Our security forces broke enemy’s prisons, damaged bomb making and drug factories. These show that we have had many victories and expanded our geography. The reports should be based on realities,” said Radmanesh.

He said that there was a one per cent increase to the security forces’ death toll, but the enemy had suffered large number of casualties.

Separately, Taliban claimed in a statement that their fighters captured several districts and important centers only in July and killed more Afghan and foreign troops comparing to the same period in last year.

Radmanesh added that threat level jumped up after Indonesia and Saudi conferences in which Islamic scholars supported Afghan government.

The SIGAR said that Taliban’s increasing activities were a matter of concern. It claimed that the government of Afghanistan lost one per cent more of the ground and now controls 58.5 per cent of the ground.

Security experts say that the report would demoralize security forces. “The US tries to get closer to Taliban and this is in their benefit. The cities and provincial capitals are under the government’s control, but in the districts, the government controls only the centers of districts and the rest are controlled by Taliban,” said military analyst, Atiqullah Amarkhil.