The Taliban has announced the start of its spring offensive, pledging to launch large-scale offensives against government strongholds backed by suicide and guerrilla attacks to drive Afghanistan's government from power.
The announcement of the formal start of "Operation Omari", named after the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, comes just days after Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kabul and reaffirmed US support for the national unity government led by President Ashraf Ghani.
"Jihad against the aggressive and usurping infidel army is a holy obligation upon our necks and our only recourse for re-establishing an so-called Islamic system and regaining our independence," the Taliban said in a statement.
As well as suicide and tactical attacks, the operation would include assassinations of enemy commanders in urban centres, the Taliban statement said.
"The present operation will also employ all means at our disposal to bog the enemy down in a war of attrition that lowers the morale of the foreign invaders and their internal armed militias," it said.
source : abna24
