US watchdog: Significant increase in violence in Afghanistan

Despite ongoing peace talks, violence in Afghanistan has increased in the first three months of the year, according to a US government watchdog report published on Friday.

According to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report, the number of so-called enemy-initiated attacks – attacks conducted by insurgents such as the Taliban – has increased nearly 37 per cent from January to March compared to the same quarter last year.

Additionally, casualties among Afghan security forces were “substantially higher” compared to the same period last year, and the number of insider attacks on security forces also increased by 82 per cent compared to the same period last year. This resulted in more than double the casualties from insider attacks, the report states.

The UN mission in Afghanistan had already reported a 29-per-cent increase in civilian casualties for the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.

The United States, and subsequently NATO, had decided in mid-April to withdraw the 9,600 international soldiers remaining in Afghanistan after almost 20 years. In the past weeks, US defence officials have repeatedly expressed concern about whether Afghan security forces will be able to defend the government without international support.

Meanwhile, an ongoing peace process is struggling.

Representatives of the Taliban have been holding peace negotiations with the government in Qatar without any tangible progress since September.

Observers fear that if international troops withdraw without a political solution to the conflict, the country could slide into a new civil war.