Pentagon Says Human Error Muzzled Afghanistan Watchdog's Report
- Only 56% of Afghanis live in areas controlled by government
- U.S., civilian casualties climbed in 2017, report says
Afghan security personnel stand guard near the site of an attack near the Marshal Fahim Military Academy base in Kabul on January 29, 2018
Photographer: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
Hours after a Pentagon watchdog criticized the Defense Department for blocking the inclusion of unclassified information in his reports on the war in Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman said the information had been withheld because of “human error.”
In a report published just before midnight Monday, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said he was unable to publish information on Afghan force strength or on the amount of territory that’s held by the government. That represented a tightening of secrecy protocols on the quarterly report, a key gauge of U.S. progress in what has become America’s longest war.