Pentagon bans disclosure of data on Taliban in Afghan war: Watchdog

(Hindustan Times/AFP), Washington, 30 jan 2018 -  -A US government watchdog said Tuesday the Pentagon has barred it from disclosing how much of Afghanistan is under Taliban control -- a significant break from past accountability that comes amid mounting security woes in the war-torn nation.  

At issue are the number of Afghan districts, and the populations living in them, considered to be held or influenced by the Kabul government by insurgents or contested by both.  

The US government has sometimes referred to such numbers in the 16-year-old war to show how the Afghan security forces are faring against a resurgent Taliban.  

But in a report published Tuesday, the US government’s office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the Pentagon had instructed it to no longer disclose the numbers.  

SIGAR said the Pentagon had also asked its office, for the first time since 2009, to classify the figures detailing the size and attrition rates of Afghan 
security forces.