KABUL - The Taliban are likely to keep up their recent surge of violence in advance of scheduled parliamentary elections in October, but Afghan defenses will not break, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday.
In his most detailed comments on the Taliban’s assault on the city of Ghazni since it began on 10 August, Mattis said the Taliban had six objectives in and around the city and failed to seize any of them.
He would not specify the six sites.
“We now know that the enemy had six objectives in Ghazni. They failed to seize any one of the six locations in the area. It’s been principally an information operation to grab a lot of press attention. They’ve been successful. The operation itself, there are still some hiding out in houses trying to get resupplied, that sort of thing. So clearance operations continue. But at least right now we do not have hunger in the town. Commerce going on. That sort of thing,” he said.
The insurgents likely were trying to gain leverage in advance of an expected ceasefire offer by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the US defense chief said, adding they likely were also hoping to sow fear in advance of the October elections.
In Ghazni, the provincial police chief the report said The AGO developed ToRs for all prosecutors and operationalized the critical performance evaluation system for the prosecutors.
A Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) was established within the AGO, with prosecutors recruited for up to 20 insecure districts.
Comprehensive legal training programs have been initiated to improve the capacity of prosecutors.
The AGO dramatically increased the portion of female employees from just three percent to 21 percent.
To increase inter-departmental engagement, the Provincial Appellate Prosecution directorates were also involved in the planning and budgeting processes.
The AGO has constructed office facilities for its provincial offices in Nuristan, Daikundi and Khost, while construction of these facilities in five additional provinces are underway.
At the same time, the MEC observed that some of its recommendations have not been implemented or have seen limited progress during this quarter.
•       Legal courses being conducted for prosecutors in provinces  are ineffective due to lack  of professional expertise for teaching the courses.
•       No final decision has yet been taken by the Ministry of Justice regarding proposed changes to resources and support for Legal Aid Providers.
•       Transportation issues for AGO staff at the District level and in insecure areas remain a serious problem.
•       Appropriate Criminal Forensic Laboratory facilities and equipment are still not available in all provinces.
TheMEC will monitor implementation of the recommendations issued in its Special Report of the AGO’s Vulnerabilities to Corruption every quarter.  (Pajhwok)