Taliban Movement Controls At Least 50% Of Afghan Territory - Russian Ambassador

Taliban Movement Controls at Least 50% of Afghan Territory - Russian Ambassador

The Taliban militant movement controls at least 50 percent of the total territory of Afghanistan, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Alexander Mantytskiy said

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2019) The Taliban militant movement controls at least 50 percent of the total territory of Afghanistan, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Alexander Mantytskiy said.

The ambassador said that those regions that are not easily accessible for the government were being seized the most often.

"Generally speaking, at least 50 percent of the Afghan territory is controlled by the Taliban movement," Mantytskiy said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily newspaper.

He added that, according to various estimates, from 3,500 to 10,000 militants from the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia) were currently staying in Afghanistan and regularly carrying out attacks there.

Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable security situation, with the government engaged in fight against the Taliban, which has been waging a war against Kabul for almost two decades, and the IS, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015.