Taliban Spreading In Afghanistan Despite U.S. Buildup

The Taliban now has a permanent presence in virtually every area of Afghanistan, expanding its influence across the country despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops, according to an analysis based on daily reports of insurgent activity from January to September of this year.

The International Council on Security and Development, a London-based policy research group, released the study and a new security map Thursday that paints a grim picture of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. It shows a heavy or permanent Taliban presence in 80 percent of Afghanistan. The term "permanent" is defined as provinces that report an average of one or more insurgent attacks per week.

The group says the Taliban also has a "substantial" presence in an additional 17 percent of the country. That description is based on an average of one or more insurgent attacks per month and includes accounts from residents who believe the Taliban is active in the area.

"Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban has returned to touch almost every corner of Afghanistan," said Alexander Jackson, a policy analyst who worked on the study.

In November 2007, the group determined that the Taliban had a permanent presence in just over half of Afghanistan. That number shot up to 72 percent in its next report issued in November 2008.

President Obama ordered an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, raising the total number of U.S. forces there to about 64,000, in an effort to curb the resurgent Taliban.

August was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces since the conflict began in 2001, with 47 troops killed in Afghanistan, according to The Associated Press.

The ICSD report says the Taliban appears to be spreading out from traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country.

The most dramatic shift over the past few months has been the dissolving security situation in the north of Afghanistan, in provinces that have been relatively stable, such as Kunduz and Balkh. Over the past few months, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of attacks against international, Afghan government and civilian targets in these areas.

A map drawn up by the Afghan government and the United Nations and released earlier this year indicated many parts of northern Afghanistan were at low or medium risk for Taliban attacks. That map, produced in April in preparation for the Aug. 20 national elections, showed the biggest threat for violence in the traditional Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan.

The ICSD's findings come as election officials deal with the fallout from last month's presidential and provincial council elections. There are allegations of widespread fraud, and the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has thrown out ballots from 83 polling stations and ordered recounts at hundreds of voting sites.