04-12-2016, 01:45 PM
They're back ..........Taliban in Afghanistan
The Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive on Tuesday, pledging to launch large-scale offensives against government strongholds backed by suicide and guerrilla attacks to drive Afghanistan’s Western-backed 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 U.S. 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 reestablishing an Islamic system and regaining our independence,” the Taliban said in a statement.
How far the announcement will lead to an immediate escalation in fighting, which caused 11,000 civilian casualties last year, remains unclear. However, NATO and Afghan officials have said they expect very tough combat in 2016.Heavy fighting has continued for months across Afghanistan, from Kunduz, the northern city that fell briefly to the insurgents last year, to Helmand province bordering Pakistan in the south.
In Helmand, where thousands of British and American troops were killed or injured fighting the Taliban, government forces have pulled back from many areas and are struggling to hold on to centers close to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Understrength Afghan security forces, struggling with heavy casualties and high desertion rates and short of air power, transport and logistical support, have struggled in their first year fighting largely alone. (HOTD: I've seen reports of defecting American-trained Afghan soldiers using their weapons and training to help the Taliban, along with ISIS fighters defecting due to gratuitous non-Islamic violence and joining the Taliban.)
Refs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tali...6057a243a7
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/12/middleeast...index.html
The Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive on Tuesday, pledging to launch large-scale offensives against government strongholds backed by suicide and guerrilla attacks to drive Afghanistan’s Western-backed 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 U.S. 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 reestablishing an Islamic system and regaining our independence,” the Taliban said in a statement.
How far the announcement will lead to an immediate escalation in fighting, which caused 11,000 civilian casualties last year, remains unclear. However, NATO and Afghan officials have said they expect very tough combat in 2016.Heavy fighting has continued for months across Afghanistan, from Kunduz, the northern city that fell briefly to the insurgents last year, to Helmand province bordering Pakistan in the south.
In Helmand, where thousands of British and American troops were killed or injured fighting the Taliban, government forces have pulled back from many areas and are struggling to hold on to centers close to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Understrength Afghan security forces, struggling with heavy casualties and high desertion rates and short of air power, transport and logistical support, have struggled in their first year fighting largely alone. (HOTD: I've seen reports of defecting American-trained Afghan soldiers using their weapons and training to help the Taliban, along with ISIS fighters defecting due to gratuitous non-Islamic violence and joining the Taliban.)
Refs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tali...6057a243a7
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/12/middleeast...index.html