WASHINGTON: The Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan’sdistricts, fully controlling 4 percent of the country and demonstrating anopen physical presence in another 66 per cent, according to a BBC studypublished on Tuesday.
The BBC estimate, which it said was based on conversations with more than1,200 individual local sources in all districts of the South Asian country,was significantly higher than the most recent assessment by the NATO-ledcoalition of the Taliban’s presence.
The coalition said on Tuesday that the Taliban contested or controlled only44 per cent of Afghan districts as of October 2017.
Afghanistan has been reeling over the past nine days from a renewed spateof violence that is adding scrutiny to the latest, more aggressive UnitedStates (US)-backed strategy to bolster Afghan forces battling the Talibanin a 16-year-old war.
A bomb hidden in an ambulance struck the city centre and killed more than100 people, just over a week after an attack on the Hotel Intercontinental,also in Kabul, which left more than 20 people dead, including four UScitizens.
Although the BBC counted 399 districts in Afghanistan, the NATO-led forcecounted 407 districts. The reason behind the discrepancy was notimmediately clear.
The study said the Afghan government controlled 122 districts or about 30per cent of the country. Still, it noted that did not mean that they werefree from Taliban attacks.
“Kabul and other major cities, for example, suffered major attacks –launched from adjacent areas, or by sleeper cells – during the researchperiod, as well as before and after,” the report said.
Asked about the BBC’s study, the Pentagon did not comment directly butpointed to the latest figures by the NATO-led coalition asserting thatabout 56 per cent of Afghanistan’s territory was under Afghan governmentcontrol or influence.
The study by Britain’s public broadcaster quoted a spokesman for AfghanPresident Ashraf Ghani playing down the findings.
The BBC study also said Islamic State had a presence in 30 districts, butnoted it did not fully control any of them.