Taliban announce offensive in apparent snub to peace efforts

The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive on Wednesday, in an apparent rejection of calls for the militants to take up the Afghan government’s offer of peace talks.

Operation Al Khandaq — named after a famous seventh century battle in Medina in which Muslim fighters defeated “infidel” invaders — will target US forces and “their intelligence agents” as well as their “internal supporters”, a Taliban statement said.

The Taliban said the offensive was partly a response to US President Donald Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan announced last August, which gave US forces more leeway to go after insurgents.

The annual spring offensive traditionally marks the start of the so-called fighting season, though this winter the Taliban continued to battle Afghan and US forces.

Al Khandaq will mainly focus on “crushing, killing and capturing American invaders and their supporters”, the Taliban said.

Afghanistan’s largest militant group has been under pressure to accept Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s February offer of peace talks, but the Taliban statement made no mention of the proposal.

Experts said the Taliban announcement was an apparent rejection of the offer and heralded more intense fighting in the drawn-out war. AFP

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