The Afghan government controls just over half of the country’s territory, US Inspector General for Reconstruction of Afghanistan released a report on Thursday.

"As of July 2018, the Afghan government’s control or influence of Afghanistan’s districts fell to the lowest level (55.5%) since SIGAR began receiving the data in November 2015. The Afghan government controls or influences districts in which about 65% of the population lives, unchanged since October 2017,” the report said.

The number of contested districts—controlled or influenced by neither the Afghan government nor the insurgency—increased by 10 since last quarter to 132 districts, meaning that 32.4% of Afghanistan’s districts are now contested.118

Afghan security forces are not fully staffed, while militants are intensifying attacks against targets of the Afghan government and security forces, the report says.