The October 2017 SIGAR Report to Congress on Afghanistan is now available online. Some of the key findings are listed below:
- The Afghan governments control of population and districts deteriorated to the lowest levels in recent years.
- UNAMA reported a significant increase in civilian casualties in 2017 over 2016.
- The U.S. has experienced in increase in KIA and WIA over 2016 and 2015.
- There has been an increase in ‘insider attacks’ this quarter when compared to previous quarters. (‘insider attack’ = ‘green on green’, or ‘green on blue’ incidents).
- The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) suffered a 9,000 decrease in personnel. (Not a good sign).
- Armed clashes are at an all-time high according to the United Nations.
- The U.S. has increased the number of dropped munitions this year against the Taliban and Islamic State; more than any year since 2012.
- The Afghans intend to double the size of the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF). (Let’s hope they don’t violate SOF Truth No. 3)
- CSTC-A has provided funding for the Afghan Local Police – bringing total ALP funding for salary and incentive costs to $73.8 million per year for the next two years.
- President Ghani has appointed impressive, reform-minded officials to important government posts but his efforts are stymied by entrenched interests within the government bureaucracy.
- The Resolute Support (RS) headquarters (actually USFOR-A according to the report) has classified much of the data previously available to SIGAR to publish in its quarterly reports available to the public. SIGAR believes there is a lack of ‘transparency’ on the part of RS.
- SIGAR has implemented a “Lessons Learned Program” that will hopefully be useful for future Security Force Assistance programs in other countries around the world.
- There is an overview of the new R4&S strategy of the Trump administration.
- Resolute Support headquarters is moving away from the “Program of Actions and Milestones” (PoAM) as a means of evaluating the progress of the ANDSF. It is assessing the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior on milestones laid out in the new, multi-year ANDSF Road Map.
Read the October 2017 SIGAR report online or download:
www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2017-10-30qr.pdf
