U.S. watchdog says Afghan leaders control just 57 percent of their land

The U.S. government’s main watchdog organization in Afghanistan released its quarterly report to Congress this week, and it contained a shocking statistic: The government of Afghanistan has uncontested control over only 57 percent of its territory as of last November. That is down from 72 percent a year earlier.

The war in Afghanistan has proved to be the United States’ lengthiest and costliest to date. Former President Barack Obama campaigned for president on wrapping it up, but the emergence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, as well as the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaida, have prolonged the U.S. troop presence. There are about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, more than in any other war zone in the world.

The report, by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, notes that the loss of territory is probably because of a strategic shift made by the United States, NATO and their Afghan National Army partners. In the past year, their troops have abandoned remote outposts and started bolstering defenses around provincial capitals instead. Taliban and other militants have attempted at least eight times to capture those capitals.

Nevertheless, the report paints a stark picture of struggle for the U.S. and its allies. Key provinces that have major roads linking the country are heavily contested. Just in the past month, militants carried out numerous strikes in Afghanistan’s main cities, including a bombing of a mosque in Kabul that killed 50 and an attack in Kandahar that killed five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates, among others.

A third of the population, or 9.2 million Afghans, live in contested districts, according to the SIGAR report.