The security situation has deteriorated sharply in Afghanistan since the agreement signed in February 2020 between the Taliban and the United States, according to an official American report published on Thursday, July 29.

The "attacks initiated by the enemy", attributed mainly to the Taliban, fell from 9,651 at the end of 2019 to 13,242 at the end of 2020, says the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (Sigar, which reports to the Congress), based on data from the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

This is the first time since December 2019 that the latter has published detailed figures of these attacks.

Between March 1 and May 31, the date of the latest data collected by the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, before the withdrawal of most of the coalition forces, 1,383 attacks were recorded, including 3,268 were fatal, according to the Sigar's office.

At the request of the government in Kabul, the Inspector General does not publish the number of casualties of the Afghan army, which numbers some 300,000 men and women.

Violence against civilians reached record levels in April and May, according to the NATO mission, with 705 civilians killed and 1,330 injured - almost as many as the previous three months combined.

Resolute Support attributes 93% of civilian casualties in recent months to anti-government forces (40% to the Taliban, 38% to unidentified insurgents, 14% to the Islamic State group and less than 1% to the Haqqani network, close to the Taliban).

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The report also notes that the Taliban have taken control of a significant number of districts in the rural areas, although they do not control the major cities.

"The overall trend is clearly unfavorable to the Afghan government, which could face an existential crisis if it does not reverse it," said Inspector General John Sopko in the report.

"What is most worrying is the speed and ease with which the Taliban have apparently taken control of districts in the north of the country, a former stronghold of opposition to the Taliban," observes John Sopko.

The recent lightning advance of the Taliban raises fears that they will seize power again, 20 years after being ousted in late 2001 by an international coalition led by the United States, after their refusal to hand over the leader of Al -Qaïda Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Sunday in Kabul, the head of US operations in Afghanistan, General Kenneth McKenzie, warned that the United States would continue its airstrikes against the Taliban, if the latter continued their offensive.

With AFP

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