Taliban increases control over territory in Afghanistan - US watchdog

The Taliban has increased the amount of territory it has influence in or controls in Afghanistan in the past six months, a US watchdog agency said on Tuesday. As of August 2017, 13 percent of the 407 districts in Afghanistan were under Taliban control or influence, compared with 11 percent in February, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, said in a report. That means an additional 700,000 people now live in districts where the Taliban at least has some influence, Reuters said. The security situation in the country remains precarious even as the US has committed several thousand more troops.