ISLAMABAD \u2014 Afghanistan’s Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive Friday, promising to build their political base in the country while focusing military assaults on coalition and Afghan security forces.
Attempts to find a peaceful end to Afghanistan’s protracted war have been relentlessly unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the political side, Mujahid said the Taliban were going to begin building institutions in areas under their control, establishing what he called “social justice and development” mechanisms. He didn’t offer specifics nor did he indicate whether this was an indication that the Taliban would step up their brand of justice that during their rule included the chopping off of hands for those convicted of theft and public executions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Taliban may be officially announcing their spring offensive, recent attacks including one earlier this week on an army base in northern Afghanistan that killed more than 140 Afghan soldiers would seem to warn of a tough fighting season ahead. In the latest attack, the Taliban disguised as Afghan army soldiers slipped into the compound of the 209 Corps in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province. While two militants exploded their suicide vests, the others opened fire on scores of soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as the Taliban, Afghanistan is also battling an emerging local Islamic State group affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban announcement of the offensive coincides with the anniversary of Afghanistan’s so-called Saur Revolution against its pro-Russian rulers, which led to a 10-year uprising by U.S. backed Islamic insurgents or mujahedeen against an invading Soviet army. The Soviets withdrew defeated in 1989.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Taliban dubbed this year’s offensive “Operation Mansouri,” named for the Taliban leader killed last year in a U.S. drone strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-57627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BX7B7X33HZDZXAN3T4SDUG3GLY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/04\/28\/taliban-announce-spring-offensive-vow-to-build-institutions\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n