The US has for the first time banned its inspector in Afghanistan from publishing data on how much of the country is controlled by the Taliban and other Islamist rebels, as concerns rise about mounting violence just as President Donald Trump recommits to the war.
This month has been one of the deadliest in Afghanistan’s recent history. In the past few weeks, there have been three fatal attacks in Kabul and one on a Save the Children compound in Jalalabad, close to the Pakistan border. The combined death toll stands at close to 150.
But at the request of the US defence department, this quarter’s US update on the country’s reconstruction, released on Tuesday, omitted some of its most significant data, including how much of the country the Afghan government controls.