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Taliban announces to launch spring offensive from Friday

Xinhua, April 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government to regain power announced Wednesday to launch their annual spring offensive.

The offensive dubbed "Azm" means "Resolution" from Friday April 24, a statement of the armed outfit sent to media said. "Although the foreign occupying forces announced late last year the end of war mission in Afghanistan, still they control the land and air space of the country and the command of war is in their hands," the statement said, adding if the foreign occupiers want the end of war in Afghanistan, they should withdraw completely.

The U.S. and NATO-led troops ended their combat mission in Afghanistan late in December 2014, facilitating Afghan national security force to shoulder alone the security responsibility of the their conflict-ridden country from January 1 this year.

However, more than 13,000 U.S.-led forces under the name of Resolute Support (RS) mission have still remained in Afghanistan to train and advice Afghan forces.

In the statement, Taliban militants also called upon Afghan civil and military servicemen to desert government rank and join "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" (the name of Taliban ousted regime) which had ruled major part of the country before its collapse in late 2001.

The announced annual spring offensive is the first one since President Ashraf Ghani assumed office in September.

Taliban outfit in its last spring offensive, dubbed "Khyber" and kicked off on May 12, 2014 mostly in the shape of suicide attacks and roadside bombings, had failed to capture a major city or district in the country although thousands of people including militants, military personnel and civilians were killed and injured.

Nearly 3,700 civilians were killed and more than 6,800 others injured in the Taliban-led militancy and conflicts in 2014, according to a report of UN mission in Afghanistan released here in February this year.

Militancy and conflicts typically get momentum in spring and summer in Afghanistan commonly known as fighting season among Afghans. Endi