Afghanistan’s security forces shrink as insurgents step up attacks
KABUL — As Afghanistan continues to struggle with conflict and insecurity at the hands of two aggressive insurgencies, the number of Afghan soldiers and police has declined sharply in the past year, the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction said in report released Tuesday.
The report, by the U.S. government watchdog agency known as SIGAR, found that the combined roster of military and police forces fell nearly 11 percent over the past year, from about 331,700 in January 2017 to about 296,400 this January. That was far below the total authorized strength of 334,000.
The report came at a time of intensified insurgent attacks in the capital and across the country. In recent weeks, Islamic State militants have carried out several deadly suicide attacks in Kabul, one outside a voter ID registration center that killed 55 people, and twin blasts on Monday in a highsecurity official zone that killed 25, including nine journalists.
Taliban insurgents, meanwhile, have kept up a high rate of attacks across rural provinces, including Faryab and Ghowr in the west, Baghlan and Kunduz in the north, and Helmand and Nimruz in the south and west. Snubbing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani, the Taliban last week announced the launch of its annual spring offensive.
The drop in Afghan security force numbers comes as the U.S. government has committed more than 15,000 troops to Afghanistan in an effort to turn around the stalemated war, with a focus on training more security personnel and on expanding the size of the air force and the special operations forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking Tuesday with reporters in Washington, said that despite the recent high-profile bombings and the new Taliban push, that effort was beginning to bear fruit.
“We knew there would be tough fighting going forward,” he said. “The Afghan military is being made more capable.” He said that Afghan special operations forces, advised and accompanied by NATO mentors, “are the most effective forces. So the expansion there is why the enemy has been unable to take any district centers, provincial centers, or make any advances there.”
Mr. Mattis said that the joint forces have been able to block many attacks on civilians, but that “unfortunately once in a while they get through ... this is simply what they do; they murder innocent people.” He said the U.S. and NATO mission will “stand by the Afghan government” and continue to pressure the insurgents to “drive them to a political settlement.”
Along with its boosting of Afghan forces, the U.S. has stepped up air attacks under expanded authority from Prresident Donald Trump’s administration, as well as unmanned drone strikes, and has claimed numerous successes in killing Taliban and Islamic State commanders.
Several experts on the conflict, however, said that while the yearlong American military effort needs more time to produce results, it has made little discernible difference so far on the battlefield or in the political calculus of the insurgents.
“Only a starry-eyed optimist can seriously suggest that the new plan is going well,” said Michael Kugelman, a specialist on Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.