US 'worried' over political infighting in Afghanistan

A political rift between Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and regional leaders is getting intense as a second governor of a northern Afghan province defied an order by the United States-backed central government to step down on Sunday.

According to The New York Times report, despite having the same goal to oppose the Taliban, the infighting between the Afghan leaders has added for the United States as it struggles to make headway against the insurgents.

A report issued on Friday by the Office of Inspector General at the Defense Department showed that the new Afghan strategy of more bombing and pressurising Pakistan isn't proving to be effective against Taliban.

The report said since the Kabul government controls 18 percent of the country's districts and has an influence over an additional 38 percent.

"The U.S. and NATO commanders stated that this revised strategy changed the momentum in Afghanistan," the report said. "However, one of the few unclassified metrics available to assess this progress, government control of population centers, showed no change."

The situation is further worsening as the political infighting in the government-controlled area is posing another challenge.