Afghanistan: Taliban Spring Offensive 'Cowardly and Un-Islamic'

Former Taliban fighters display their weapons as they join Afghan government forces during a ceremony in Herat province on May 2, 2012. Taliban insurgents announced they would launch their 'spring offensive' across Afghanistan on May 3, 2012. (Aref Karimi/AFP/GettyImages)

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government on Monday condemned the recent Taliban announcement of the start of their annual "spring offensive," calling it cowardly and un-Islamic and pledging the country's forces would thwart any attacks.

The offensive begins every year as snows melt and the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier. It normally leads to a surge of militant attacks throughout the country as the Taliban attempt to retake lost territory and intimidate the government.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged a two-year, rarely used program to release detainees from a military prison run by the American military near the capital, saying it was meant to bolster reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

The Taliban announcement last week was another sign of the difficulty of reconciling with a group that has been fighting the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces for more than a decade. The Taliban said they would target anyone – from government workers to tribal leaders – who works against them and helps foreigners in their "occupation" of Afghanistan.

On Monday, the Interior Ministry said that "while again declaring war against the Afghan people, their government and constitution, the Taliban insurgents also abuse their religious values in the name of a cause opposed to the basic Islamic principles of peace, education and kindness."

The ministry statement said the Taliban use propaganda and "twist holy religious values to justify their criminal activities," which have killed thousands of innocent people.

Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed, according to the United Nations. Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for more than three-quarters of those deaths.

The Taliban have launched several large-scale attacks in recent weeks, including coordinated attacks on Kabul and three other cities that left 47 people dead, including 36 insurgents, and a strike on a compound used by foreigners in the Afghan capital that killed seven.

The uptick in violence comes as NATO gears up to hand over security to local forces ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops. Some have questioned if local forces will be up to the task.

The U.S.-led coalition has also started its own campaign aimed at insurgents and is thought to have launched a number of operations in the eastern part of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. The operations, in provinces such as Ghazni, are also aimed at chocking the insurgents' ability to reach Kabul.

On Monday, a bomb killed three NATO service members in the east, the coalition said. It did not provide details about the attack nor the nationality of those killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide details about troop deaths. So far this year, 142 coalition members have died in Afghanistan.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. military has been secretly releasing high-level detainees from the Parwan detention center near Kabul to help with the reconciliation process. Many high-level Taliban detainees are held at the facility, which is run by the U.S. military but will be handed over to the Afghans within six months under a recently signed agreement.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the newspaper that many times the United States had acted on information that "might strengthen the reconciliation process."

"Ambassador Crocker was referencing a two-year old, rarely used program in which senior military officials, together with their Afghan counterparts, weigh the benefits of releasing certain individuals who are being detained at the Parwan Detention Facility and who are willing to denounce violence and engage in the process of reconciliation," U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall told The Associated Press.

Sundwall said fewer than 20 detainees have ever been released under the program and that the decision takes into account whether they pose any further security threat.

In the latest violence, four gunmen took over a tall building in the eastern province of Paktika late Sunday and started shooting down into surrounding government compounds, wounding one civilian. A spokesman for the governor, Mokhlis Afghan, said police surrounded the building in the provincial capital and killed the attackers after several hours. NATO and Afghan soldiers provided support.

Also Monday, the governor of southern Helmand province condemned a NATO airstrike last week that he said killed six civilians – a woman, three girls and two boys. Gulab Mangal said Friday's strike was aimed at insurgents attacking NATO and Afghan forces in the province's Sangin district. He said "a civilian house was also targeted by the airstrike unintentionally."

Mangal said U.S.-led NATO forces confirmed the recent event and apologized, saying it would help the remaining members of the family.

In the north, a large roadside bomb killed three people Monday in Kunduz province's Imam Sahib district – including a high-ranking national border police commander, said Amanullah Qurishi, the district chief.

___

Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

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Comments

[fourex]

08:56 PM on 05/08/2012

Terribly un-sporting also, I would say.

[Javedm]

09:19 AM on 05/08/2012

It is easy for Karizi to say the Taliban are ‘'Cowardly and Un-Islamic’ But may be if his government actually delivered an atlernative to the people other than curroption and laws allowing rapest to marry their victims. He would have greater support from the people of Afganistan.

[fourex]

08:57 PM on 05/08/2012

Karzai will be the first out after US money and troops leave.

[Robster]

07:59 AM on 05/08/2012

This is good actually; it means we can justify continuing killing Taliban.

[Joseph LeCompte]

02:56 AM on 05/08/2012

It would of been cheaper to fly all the woman and children out and wait 20 years. Because we are in year 11 now with little progress.

[adamben]

08:21 PM on 05/08/2012

now that's the best idea have heard. kudos!

ffed.

[cobry4949]

01:12 AM on 05/08/2012

HEre the 1000 dollar question see those bullets inthe picture, Now who sold or gave them the bullets and th eweaposn they didnt go down to the alalalal store and get them for a camel. See those are precison made bullets, like there weapons, I knw afgan does have a winchester or amrs factory, now maybe pakistan but Im sure there governemtn watches that, so besies pakiastan where do the weapons come from, whos is giving them to the taliban was it from when we armed them during the russian war. SOmetimes the war mongers give the weapons so they can play war.

[Joseph LeCompte]

02:07 AM on 05/08/2012

The pashtuns have been trading everything in the world for thousands of years. You used to be able to buy anything or order anything and get it in 3 days. It's the center of the silk road. Bullets are no problem. P.J. O'Rourke did an article about 20-25 years ago there. He asked a pashtun trader for Cuban cigars. The trader got them in 3 days.

[Javedm]

09:11 AM on 05/08/2012

When the Libyan opposition was armed where did the West get the weapons from (they didn’t provide made in the USA) that’s the same place these get weapons.

That is why war is always good for business someone will always buy you wares

[maceandemma]

12:16 AM on 05/08/2012

When have they been anything but cowardly? Perhaps while fighting the Russians? At least when they were fighting the Russians they were not killing their own people.

[adamben]

08:22 PM on 05/08/2012

the taliban never fought the russians. they came after.

[maceandemma]

11:53 PM on 05/08/2012

Many of the same individuals we later had to kill honed their skills killing Russians. Call them what you will. We funded, armed and trained many of them.

[Wmof2011]

11:48 PM on 05/07/2012

Since the Taliban mission is to control the drug profits forever, I wonder why there hasn't been another group trying to have a drug war with them.

[adamben]

08:23 PM on 05/08/2012

the only other group is the haqqin network, and they seem to have non-overlapping turfs, like the mafia.

[Wmof2011]

11:46 PM on 05/07/2012

The Taliban has no cause. They simply want to control the drug profits.

[TeraWatt60]

11:31 PM on 05/07/2012

No one has even managed to completely conquer those living in Afghanistan...the Persians(several times), Greeks, Chinese, Mongols, Russians (twice), British and others have tried and ultimately failed. We should have known this going in since the last Russian attempt had only ended in 1989 but just like anything attempted by Duhbya and the Neo-Cons they failed to focus became distracted by the oil and bluster in Iraq and now 10years on we can't get this mess off the bottom of our national shoe...leave and use drone to smack down this Dark Age throwbacks and be done with them

[Wmof2011]

11:23 PM on 05/07/2012

The Taliban and Al Qaeda have slaves. Those men, women, and children are not allowed to leave. And they live on scraps.

[Trustfunded1]

08:01 PM on 05/07/2012

Meh...It's what any puppet government would say when faced with an uprising.

[adamben]

08:24 PM on 05/08/2012

maybe so, but what he says is true.

[joefargo]

05:56 PM on 05/07/2012

"A planned withdrawal of US and coalition forces by the end of 2014 hinges on building up Afghan army and police..."

Really? I believe we are planning to have 20,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan for as long as ten years, or 2022. But, I guess we can pretend withdrawal for political purposes?

[radiojunkie]

06:16 PM on 05/07/2012

I believe you confuse "non-combat role" with combat role. 20k, eh? That's a whopping figure for a support role after 2014. Gotta link? :)

[joefargo]

11:35 PM on 05/07/2012

It did not say "combat trrops," but nice try. For one of many sources you requested: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/obama-finally-a-commander-in-chief/2012/05/02/gIQAFD9ewT_blog.html]

[Bradley Greig Smith]

03:35 PM on 05/07/2012

We are not leaving in 2014 I wish they would stop spreading that BS. We are replacing the conventional forces with Special forces and added air strikes. Nobody has any faith at all in Karzai being able to keep anything going without us. There forces are weak, they are not leading any of the battles that is total BS. Furthermore, our government has been covering up the amount of attacks on our troops by Afghan soldiers. This will only get worse as our troops are spread more thin and embedded with Afghan units.

[StopMakingSense2]

03:09 PM on 05/07/2012

Afghanistan, the god forsaken land!

[TheyCallMeLtKelso]

05:18 PM on 05/07/2012

Sounds like the first line of a National Anthem.

"The graveyard of empires".

"...the greatest blunder is getting involved in a land war in Asia".

[czs5056]

09:48 PM on 05/07/2012

unless you are the Mongols of the Golden Horde

[Joseph LeCompte]

02:09 AM on 05/08/2012

It's the a whole of the world. We should of only and ever use Special Forces in the area with defined limited objectives. You cannot occupy that place.

[rockymtnleather]

02:27 PM on 05/07/2012

Does anyone here REALLY care how many Afghans kill each other? They've been doing it for CENTURIES and they're not going to stop no matter how long we're there, no matter how many of our military members are lost, and no matter how much money is WASTED in that no man's land. GET OUT NOW!!!

[TheyCallMeLtKelso]

05:25 PM on 05/07/2012

Yes, I do care how many Afghans kill each other.

Just because they are called "Afghans" does NOT make them not human beings worthy of continued life.

Real Americans "...Hold these truths to be self-evident: that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights (including) Life, Liberty, and Happiness."

[Ansdlmol]

06:47 PM on 05/07/2012

True but it does not mandate that the USA will be responsible for these rights. That is the responsibility of the Afghan government and should they fail so be it. Contrary to common belief the USA is not the world's keeper. This whole ball of wax revolves around the sale of opium and the problems arising from such sale. So the problem is a home grown one in that it is America's drug problem that drives the growing and sale of opium and since that problem is NEVER going to go away business will be as usual.

[Joseph LeCompte]

02:15 AM on 05/08/2012

A kid in kindergarten on 9/11 is now a.soldier fighting another kid who was 6 on 9/11.