KABUL – Sharp decline in strength has been reported in Afghan NationalDefence Forces.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, the size of Afghanistan’s NationalDefense and Security Forces is reported at the lowest level it has beensince the Resolute Support mission began in January 2015, a US watchdogsaid in a report, TOLO News has reported.

The drop in size of the ANDSF has occurred in the past few months due tochanges in the way troops are counted and an effort to reduce the number ofso-called “ghost” or nonexistent soldiers, the Special Inspector Generalfor Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report to the US Congresson July 30.

The report says that only those ANDSF personnel who have been biometricallyvalidated in APPS are included in strength figures.

This quarter’s ANDSF strength decreased by 41,777 personnel sinceapproximately the same period in 2018, and by 50,277 compared to about thesame period in 2017.

According to the report, there are 180,869 Afghan National Army (ANA) and91,596 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel enrolled and accounted for inAPPS as of May 25, 2019.