Afghan Army Shrinks Amid Casualites & Desertions

Over the past year, casualties and desertions have had a serious impact on the strength of Afghanistan's security forces. According to a report from a US government watchdog, the number of personnel across the ranks of the Afghan National Army, Air Force and National Police have fallen about 10 percent over the past year.

At the start of 2017, the country's security forces had 331,708 personnel assigned and that fell to 296,409 by the beginning of 2018. Despite the shrinking manpower and steady Taliban gains across the country, Afghanistan's defence ministry rejected the findings of the report, claiming the army and police have the strength to combat the militants.