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The Taliban outfit fighting the government forces to regain power and re-impose its iron-hand rule in Afghanistan, contrary to expectations, has downplayed the U.S. new strategy and pushed for war to drive out the U.S.-led coalition forces stationed in the war-hit country.
The armed militant group which dismissed the U.S. new strategy on Afghanistan as warmongering and vowed to continue Jihad or the so-called holy war, launched series of deadly offensives in Kabul and other cities in the past week, killing more than 100 people including security personnel and injuring more than 200 others.
U.S. President Donald Trump in his strategy on Afghanistan announced in August, besides terming Taliban as a terrorist group and vowing to target the militants and their supporters, also promised to increase the troops' number in the insurgency-plagued country.
Taliban militants have increased activities since the unveiling of U.S. new strategy on Afghanistan. Just over the past week, they attacked high profile targets including police center and army bases in the fortified capital city of Kabul as well as in Ghazni and Kandahar provinces.
In the latest waves of deadly offensives, the Taliban militants organized a suicide attack against a bus of Marshal Fahim Military Academy of the national military college in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 15 cadets and injuring four others.
The Taliban outfit which claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, had earlier stormed police headquarters in the eastern Paktia's provincial capital Gardez on Tuesday and a military camp in Maiwand district of the southern Kandahar province on Thursday, leaving scores of security personnel dead.
Afghan observers believe that increasing Taliban activities and their attacking high profile targets in the wake of Washington's new strategy on Afghanistan virtually demonstrates the armed outfit's resolve to fighting in the country.
"In fact, the recent increase in Taliban deadly attacks reveals the armed group's strength in the war against Afghan government and the U.S.-led coalition forces stationed in Afghanistan," political analyst Khan Mohammad Daneshjo told Xinhua recently.
Daneshjo who is editor-in-chief of the weekly Abbadi also believed that the "Taliban militants and their supporters have downplayed the U.S. new strategy on Afghanistan by escalating deadly attacks and give the message that they have the ability to continue the war".
Echoing Daneshjo, another analyst Nazari Pariani, the editor-in-chief of the leading newspaper the Daily Mandegar, said "Taliban fighters by increasing attacks want to demonstrate their power and give the message that the group is capable to attack any target at any time if it wants."
Nevertheless, he was of the view that "Poor management in security apparatus and disharmony among those at the helm of affairs have also paved the way for the militants" to conduct lethal attacks elsewhere in the country.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
