The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan may be exaggerating successes of raids designed to kill or capture insurgent leaders, a flagship strategy in the 10-year war, a report warned Thursday.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hails the raids as one of the most effective tactics against the insurgency, but the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) says data from December 2009 to September 2011 is inconsistent.
“The lack of transparency is particularly apparent in the case of the insurgent ‘leaders’ that were reportedly being killed and captured; there is no way to properly evaluate these claims,” said the AAN report on its website. There was no immediate reaction from ISAF but just two days ago, the military said the number of Taliban attacks had declined for the first time.
Major General Michael Krause said overall attacks were down in the past two months compared to last year and that the Taliban has failed in recent months to seize back territory lost in US-led offensives in the south. Basing its data on 3,771 press releases announcing the deaths of at least 3,873 people and the detentions of another 7,146, AAN said ISAF often interchanges the terms “facilitator” and “leader” without explaining why.
