"Between 2001 and 2017, US government efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan mostly failed," the report said on Thursday.
The US Defense Department and USAID, the report added, during this time period spent around $4.7 billion on so-called "stabilization" initiatives, but the projects failed to improve Afghan government capacity and performance and in many cases were counterproductive.
In addition, transition of control in prioritized districts was made before Afghans were able to protect local populations, allowing the Taliban to fill a void in newly vacated territory, the report explained.
The Taliban menace now extends beyond Afghanistan, according to Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, who said on Thursday that an estimated 20,000 militants in the northern part of Afghanistan pose a threat to neighboring Central Asian nations.
