Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Kabul (BNA) As many as 3,000 insurgents have been killed and more than 3,000 more injured since the beginning of fighting season in the ongoing solar year, the Afghan Defense Ministry said other day.
In April, Afghan officials said they have launched a large scale military operation under the name of Khalid against insurgents in more than 10 provinces.
Following that, the Taliban announced the start of its “spring offensive” named “Mansouri”, the previous emir who was killed by the U.S. in a drone strike in Pakistan in May 2016. Like previous spring offensives, the Taliban said they would focus on targeting Afghan security forces as well as foreign forces.
“When we announce Khalid operations, they (the Taliban) also announce offensive under the name of Mansouri and coordinated destructive attacks in some provinces, but they failed in the strategy as they would have hope,” said Defense Ministry Deputy Spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish.
“We (Afghan forces) killed more than 3,000 terrorists in Afghanistan during this year, many insurgents wounded, arrested and lot of ammunition seized by Afghan defense and security forces,” Radmanish added.
However, some military experts believe the Afghan forces’ operations are in defense instead of being offensive.
“at the moment, the operations are more of defense, they should start being offensive and convince U.S. NATO for further military support,” said military expert, Atiqullah Amarkhail.
