The Taliban Are Killing Afghan Security Forces In Record Numbers - 30 To 40 A Day

A member of the Afghan National Army training with United States Army soldiers in Helmand Province in 2016. The Afghan government keeps casualty rates among its security forces a secret, along with information on attrition and recruitment. Credit Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

New York Times: The Death Toll for Afghan Forces Is Secret. Here’s Why

PUL-I-KUMRI, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents killed so many Afghan security forces in 2016, an average of 22 a day, that by the following year the Afghan and American governments decided to keep battlefield death tolls secret.

It’s much worse now. The daily fatalities among Afghan soldiers and policemen were more than double that last week: roughly 57 a day.
Seventeen years after the United States went to war in Afghanistan, the Taliban is gaining momentum, seizing territory, and killing Afghan security forces in record numbers.

Last week was especially bad, with more than 400 killed, according to an account by diplomats. But even the average numbers in recent months — from 30 to 40 a day, according to senior Afghan officials — represent a substantial upswing from two years ago and appear unsustainable in a country that has been shattered by decades of war.

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WNU Editor: What is even more disturbing was last weeks death toll where the figure of 400 Afghan soldiers and police officers killed was leaked out of a meeting between Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the new American military commander, and Western diplomats in Kabul. At this rate, the Afghan Army as we know it will be collapsing by next year, and scenes like this one will become a regular occurrence .... Taliban videos shows fighters occupying base, outposts in Afghan north (Threat Matrix).