Taliban strike in Kabul kicks off spring fighting season

The attack, which left seven dead a number of others wounded, was directed at targets inside a fortified U.S. and Afghan government compound in Kabul, according to recent reports. 

{mosads}Taliban fighters reportedly set off two suicide bombs in an attempt to breach the compound located near Kabul’s international airport. Insurgents exchanged fire with Afghan security forces for nearly a half-hour before fleeing the scene, according to news reports. 

The attack took place hours after President Obama announced the completion of a U.S-Afghan post-war deal during a nationally televised press conference at Bagram airfield in Kandahar. 

Taliban leaders claim to have intentionally coordinated the attacks with the president’s visit. But the high-level of secrecy surrounding the president’s unannounced trip to Kandahar makes that scenario unlikely. 

However, the attacks were the first salvo of what promises to be an intense fighting season in eastern and central Afghanistan. That is where U.S. and coalition commanders plan to focus their forces in an effort to flush out insurgents along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 

Wednesday’s attacks was the first wave of the “Al-Farooq” operation, which is what Taliban leaders have dubbed their upcoming spring offensive against American and coalition forces. 

The planned offensive will focus on attacking the “foreign invaders, their advisors, their contractors and members of all associated military, intelligence and auxiliary departments” not just in eastern Afghanistan, but all across the country, according to the group’s website. 

Pentagon and State Department officials said on Tuesday that Taliban forces will likely begin attacking “asymmetric targets” or nonmilitary targets as part of the upcoming offensive. 

The level of success of those types of attacks has abated as U.S. and Afghan security efforts have increased, the DOD official said. But attacks on nonmilitary targets in the country remain “a potent threat” to coalition forces, the official said. 

Last month, insurgents launched a string of attacks in Kabul and other provincial targets in eastern Afghanistan, targeting Western embassies and the Afghan parliament.

U.S. and Afghan forces blamed the Haqqani network, a Taliban offshoot based in Pakistan for masterminding those attacks.