WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Taliban has increased the amount of territory it has influence in or controls in Afghanistan in the past six months, a U.S. watchdog agency reported on Tuesday, a sign the security situation there remains precarious even as the United States has committed several thousand more troops to the war-torn country.
As of August 2017, 13 percent of the 407 districts in Afghanistan were under Taliban control or influence, compared with 11 percent in February, according to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR. That means an additional 700,000 people now live in districts where the Taliban at least has some influence.