TEHRAN - The protracted Afghan conflict, which has entered its 17th year now, could overtake Syria as the deadliest conflict in the world this year with surging violence, according to a report in AFP.

The grim assessment contrasts sharply with the consistently upbeat public view of the conflict from NATO's Resolute Support mission in Kabul, and underscores the growing sense of hopelessness in the war-torn country, the report states.

Quoting observers, the report asserts that the much-vaunted strategy of Trump administration for Afghanistan is, like those of his predecessors, failing to move the needle on the battlefield.

The Syrian conflict – which began a decade after Afghanistan's – has claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people so far this year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Graeme Smith, a consultant for the International Crisis Group, is quoted by AFP saying that “Afghan war is on track to inflict more than 20,000 battle deaths in 2018”, more than Syria.

Afghan civilian deaths have already hit a record 1,692 in the first six months of 2018, a recent UN report showed.

Bearing testimony to America’s failures in Afghanistan, the outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan Gen. John W. Nicholson urged all sides to bring an end to the protracted war.

“It is time for this war in Afghanistan to end,” Nicholson was quoted saying by New York Times in his emotional farewell address earlier this month.