The Taliban said Saturday it is launching a new offensive against foreign troops and Afghan security forces and will focus on military bases and convoys. The Taliban statement, declaring its spring military operations, warned Afghans to stay away from "centers of the enemy."
The announcement comes a day after a NATO official told CNN that the alliance anticipates insurgents to begin an extensive new round of attacks against U.S. and coalition forces "in the coming days."
The officer with the International Security Assistance Force noted that the alliance has seen similar surges at this time in recent years.
"What basically they are trying to do is start their spring offensive, and they think by surging their forces and having a concentrated series of attacks that they can demonstrate their power and relevance and influence over the Afghan population."
ISAF feels the increased coalition attacks on insurgents have had an impact, and new attacks by insurgents signal their effort to recoup their losses.
"Over the past several months insurgents have suffered a number of setbacks, having been pushed out of key sanctuaries. They have lost more weapons caches than any previous year, and they have lost hundreds of insurgent commanders and thousands of fighters," the officer said.
In the 90 days ending April 22, coalition special forces conducted 1,393 operations, capturing or killing 468 insurgent commanders, and capturing or killing 2,637 lower-level insurgents.
In response to the latest intelligence, ISAF has "increased" measures to protect its forces as well as shared the intelligence with the Afghan government, the officer said.
The expectation is new attacks would continue to focus on the latest Taliban tactics of assassinations, small arms attacks and going after so-called "soft" targets of Afghan civilians. The officer also said the alliance is watching for more of the "impersonation and infiltration-type attacks that you have seen in the last several days." (read more)
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