Defense

More Than 5,000 Afghan Troops Killed This Year As Obama’s War In Afghanistan Continues To Fall Apart

REUTERS/Josh Smith

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Russ Read Pentagon/Foreign Policy Reporter
Font Size:

Afghan security forces are being killed off by the Taliban in record numbers as Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) suffered 5,523 deaths and 9,665 wounded from Jan.1 to Aug. 19, according to a quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The remarkably high death rate already surpasses the estimated 5,000 Afghan security forces killed last year.

The ANDSF is currently engaged with multiple threats, most notably a resurgent Taliban and an Islamic State element which conducted several successful terror attacks in recent months. To make matters worse, SIGAR reports that 257 of ANDSF killed between Jan. 1, 2015 and Aug. 19 2016 were killed from 101 insider attacks.

SIGAR estimated 63.4 percent of Afghanistan was under the government’s “control or influence” in August, down from 65.6 percent at the end of May. The estimate is lower than the 68 to 70 percent of the population, Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, reported in September.

U.S. and NATO forces transitioned from an active combat mission in Afghanistan to a support mission Jan. 1, 2015. NATO is attempting to train, advise and assist the ANDSF as part of the Resolute Support Mission in the hope that it can sustain itself against the Taliban.

Despite reverting to a supplementary role, several U.S. personnel were killed during the Resolute Support Mission.

Follow Russ Read on Twitter

Send tips to russ@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.