Kabul, April 22 (IANS) Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government to regain power announced on Wednesday the launch of their annual spring offensive.
The offensive, dubbed “Azm” meaning “resolution”, will start from Friday, April 24, Xinhua news agency reported citing a statement of the armed outfit sent to the media.
“Although the foreign occupying forces announced late last year the end of their 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 that if the foreign occupiers want the end of war in Afghanistan, they should withdraw completely.
The US and NATO-led troops ended their combat mission in Afghanistan late in December 2014, allowing the Afghan national security force to shoulder alone the security responsibility of their conflict-riven country from January 1 this year.
However, more than 13,000 US-led troops under the name of Resolute Support (RS) mission have remained in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan forces.
In the statement, Taliban militants also called upon Afghan civil and military servicemen to desert government ranks and join the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” (the name of the Taliban ousted regime) which had ruled the 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.
The Taliban in their last spring offensive, dubbed “Khyber” and launched on May 12, 2014 mostly in the shape of suicide attacks and roadside bombings, had failed to capture any major city or district in the country although thousands of people, including militants, military personnel and civilians were killed and injured.
At least 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 the UN mission in Afghanistan released here in February this year.
Militancy and cases of conflict typically rise in spring and summer in Afghanistan, commonly known as the fighting season among Afghans.