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1st LD Writethru: Afghan Taliban starts yearly offensive

Xinhua, April 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday announced the start of their yearly spring offensive, the outfit said in a online statement.

Militancy and conflicts typically get momentum in spring and summer in Afghanistan commonly known as fighting season among Afghans. The offensive dubbed "Operation Omari" began at 5:00 a.m. local time Tuesday, the outfit said in the statement.

"Operation Omari began across Afghanistan at 5 a.m. today...We pray to Allah Almighty that he blesses our Operation Omari in a similar fashion and ordain it with great Islamic victories on the battlefield and the unconditional defeat and withdrawal of the foreign invaders and their internal servants,"the statement reads.

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

"With the advent of spring, it is again time for us to renew our Jihadi determination and operations," the statement said.

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

However, some 13,000 foreign forces are currently stationed in the militancy-hit Afghanistan within the framework of the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission to help Afghan forces in the field of training and advising.

Taliban outfit in its last spring offensive, dubbed "Azm" 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.

More than 3,540 civilians were killed and over 7,450 injured as the violence spread in different places of the Asian country last year, according to a report by the UN mission in the country released in mid February.

On Monday, 12 cadets were killed and some 40 others, mostly civilians, were wounded after Taliban suicide bomber hit an army bust in eastern Jalalabad city while two employees of Afghan Education Ministry were killed and seven others wounded in a roadside bombing in Afghan capital of Kabul. Enditem