Taliban insurgents announced the start to the extremist group’s annual so-called spring offensive in Afghanistan against US and Afghan security forces on Tuesday.

Taliban dubbed this year’s offensive “Operation Omari” in honor of Mullah Omar, the militant group’s leader whose 2013 death was acknowledged last summer. The campaign officially kicked off at 5 a.m. local time (00:30 GMT).

The extremist group said that with the advent of spring it is time for them to renew their jihadi operations.


Comment: It was precisely due to the US’ meddling in Afghanistan that Mullah Omar’s rose as a Taliban leader:

In spring 1994, a warlord tied to a trio of commanders including Habibullah Jan kidnapped two women from a checkpoint near the home of a cleric named Mullah Omar. Enough was enough. Mullah Omar gathered a band of religious guerrilla forces to free the women, only to find their naked corpses at the checkpoint. Fueled by the community’s outrage, they purged the area of the hated warlord and imposed Islamic law and order. The Taliban was born, with Mullah Omar at the helm. Within two years, the Taliban had seized Kabul.

Habibullah Jan had fled the country, but when the Americans overthrew the Taliban in 2001, he returned and reimposed his checkpoints. With more than 2,000 men under his command and, soon, a seat in parliament, he became the most powerful man in Zhari. When his old foe the Taliban began to surge in 2005, the Americans turned to him for help.

To put it plainly: The U.S. allied itself with a warlord so oppressive and kleptocratic that he helped create the Taliban in the first place.

The big lie that helped justify America’s war in Afghanistan

The operation will employ large scale attacks on enemy positions across the country, martyrdom-seeking and tactical attacks against the Afghani government forces, assassination of “enemy” commanders in urban centers, the group announced.

According to the statement, the present operation will also employ all means at the group’s disposal to lower the morale of the foreign armed forces.

US-led NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Joint Command mission in Afghanistan officially ended before the start of 2015. The current US plan is to end military presence in Afghanistan by December 2016, closing the remaining US bases in the country.

Formed in the 1990s, the Taliban seeks to enforce Sharia law in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. The group is known for numerous terrorist attacks against authorities and civilians in both countries.

Last year’s Taliban offensive concentrated in the northeastern province of Badakhshan and was estimated to kill over 11,000 civilians.