The report, by the agency of the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, or Sigar, said that as of Oct. 31, the Afghan government controlled territory on which 63.5 percent of its population lived, a decrease of 1.7 percent from the previous quarter, while gains by the Taliban insurgency gave it control over territory that is home to 10.8 percent of the population.

The agency’s statistics are based on data provided by the American military under a mandate to report to Congress quarterly.

In addition, the Afghan government lost control of seven more districts during the last quarter, meaning that only 53.8 percent of districts were “controlled or influenced” by the government, while 12.3 percent of the districts were under insurgent control or influence and 33.9 percent of districts were contested. Afghanistan’s 407 districts are the basic unit of local governance.

John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, whose agency issued the report, said in an interview, “It’s like moving the goal posts, something we’ve seen a lot of over the last few years.”

In response to the report, the American military said that such metrics, which have been compiled quarterly for many years, were no longer important and might be based on faulty analysis.

“Measures of population control are not indicative of effectiveness of the South Asia strategy or of progress toward security and stability in Afghanistan, particularly in the wake of the appointment of U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation (SRAR) Zalmay Khalilzad,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The military also said there was “uncertainty” and “subjectivity” in the data used to analyze population control.

…MORE

THE WASHINGTON POST (Sep 8, 2018)