The Pentagon admitted Tuesday in a report that progress has been "uneven" in the war in Afghanistan, with only modest gains against the Taliban insurgency despite a surge of US and NATO troops.
The cautious tone of the report offered a contrast to more upbeat public declarations from top officials and military leaders, who have touted encouraging signs and said the US military has gained the initiative on the battlefield.
"Progress across the country remains uneven, with modest gains in security, governance, and development in operational priority areas," according to the report issued to Congress.
Violence was at an all-time high in the nine-year-old war as coalition forces try to roll back the Taliban from cities and towns, with combat incidents up 300 percent since since 2007 and 70 percent since last year, it said.
The report described limited progress by the NATO-led force in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, longstanding Taliban bastions that have been the focus of an influx of 30,000 American troops.
"While kinetic activity is at a historic high, we are seeing some early indications that comprehensive COIN (counter-insurgency) operations are having localized effects in portions of Helmand and Kandahar Provinces," said the report, a semi-annual update delivered to Congress.
Despite the presence of nearly 100,000 US troops and nearly 50,000 other foreign forces, the insurgency remained resilient and efforts to cut off safe havens and supply links to neighboring Iran and Pakistan "have not produced measurable results," according to the report, which covered April to September.
While NATO and Afghan forces have "increased pressure on insurgent networks over the past several months, the insurgency has proven resilient with sustained logistics capacity and command and control," the Pentagon said.
The insurgency "retains momentum in certain areas" while in others the momentum was shifting in favor of Afghan and NATO-led forces, it said.
The gap between the administration's portrayal of the war and the official report to Congress in part reflects divisions between US intelligence agencies and the rest of the government, with the spy services tending to take a more pessimistic view, officials said.
One senior defense official, who asked not to be named, told journalists that the report focused on conditions through September and did not reflect "important progress" in recent weeks in military operations surrounding Kandahar city.
Describing the state of the insurgency, the report said the Taliban and its allies were adept at propaganda, exploiting widespread dissatisfaction with the corruption-plagued Kabul government.
The Taliban aimed to inflict enough losses on coalition forces to undermine international support for the war effort and "prompt a rapid withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan," it said.
With President Barack Obama promising to begin withdrawing US troops by July 2011 and NATO planning to leave by the end of 2014, the Taliban were working to promote the idea that NATO-led forces would soon depart, the report said.
"The Taliban's strength lies in the Afghan population's perception that coalition forces will soon leave, giving credence to the belief that a Taliban victory is inevitable."
The report cited the training of Afghan security forces as "one of the most promising areas of progress," with the Afghan army and police reaching recruitment goals in July, ahead of an October target.
The quality of the Afghan forces and a high attrition rate remained cause for concern, however, according to the report, which was written in coordination with intelligence agencies, the State Department and other government departments.
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