MONITORING (SW) – The Enemy-initiated attacks in Afghanistan during the fourth quarter of 2019 were at the highest level since recording began in 2010, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said.
In its latest report, SIGAR said this report summarizes its oversight work and updates developments in assessing U.S. efforts to build the Afghan security forces, improve governance, facilitate economic and social development, and combat the production and sale of narcotics. In this period, SIGAR criminal investigations produced four criminal charges, five convictions, four pretrial diversions, three sentencings, a $45 million global settlement, and over $500,000 in fines.
It said after 18 years of US engagement, it is not clear that the US and its Coalition partners have helped create an Afghan police force capable of “post-peace policing”.
The Afghan war is still in “a state of strategic stalemate” that can be solved only through a negotiated settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said this quarter.91 After a cessation of direct peace talks in September, President Donald J. Trump announced that he restarted the dialogue between the United States and the Taliban in late November.
It said Afghan officials are currently demanding a cease-fire, like the one that took place in June 2018, before beginning peace negotiations with the Taliban. ‘As this report went to press, no cease-fire or agreement about a reduction in violence had been announced.95 Meanwhile, Taliban attacks continued at a high tempo’, it said. According to data provided by the NATO Resolute Support (RS) mission, enemy-initiated attacks during the fourth quarter of 2019 were at highest level for a fourth quarter of any year since recording began in 2010. Conversely, the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF), the primary offensive force against the insurgency, conducted fewer ground operations this quarter than during the rest of 2019.
It said more American service members died in Afghanistan in 2019 than in any year since the beginning of the RS mission in January 2015.
ENDS
