WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan’s districts, fully controlling 4 percent of the country and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent, according to a BBC study says.
The BBC estimate, which it said was based on conversations with more than 1,200 individual local sources in all districts of the South Asian country, was significantly higher than the most recent assessment by the NATO-led coalition of the Taliban’s presence.
The coalition said that the Taliban contested or controlled only 44 percent of Afghan districts as of October 2017.
Afghanistan has been reeling over the past nine days from a renewed spate of violence that is adding scrutiny to the latest, more aggressive U.S.-backed strategy to bolster Afghan forces battling the Taliban in a 16-year-old war.
A bomb hidden in an ambulance struck the city center and killed more than 100 people, just over a week after an attack on the Hotel Intercontinental, also in Kabul, which left more than 20 people dead, including four U.S. citizens.
An Afghan government spokesman has downplayed the BBC findings.
The Pentagon did not directly comment on the BBC study, but pointed to the latest figures by NATO, which shows that nearly 56 percent of Afghanistan’s territory was under Afghan government control or influence.
The BBC study also said Daesh terrorists are also active in 30 Afghan districts in the east and the north, but they are not in control of any specific area.
The study was released amid a sharp spike in terror attacks by both and Daesh against Afghan civilians and security forces.
Even the Afghan capital is not safe Daesh and Taliban militancy.
Last week, Kabul witnessed a large Taliban bombing, which hit near foreign diplomatic missions and government buildings and left over 100 people dead.
Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops.
The United States -- under Republican George W. Bush’s presidency -- and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.
The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the Asian country.
 
Afghan volunteers and policemen help the wounded at the scene of a Taliban car bomb attack in Kabul on January 27, 2018.