The Taliban threatened Saturday to launch a fresh offensive across Afghanistan this coming week, as President Hamid Karzai said international forces have yet to secure large parts of the country. The Taliban said the offensive starting Monday will include assassinations of government officials, roadside bombs and suicide attacks against foreigners and those who support them. “All foreign invading forces will ultimately face defeat,” the Taliban said in a statement sent to reporters from an e-mail address used by the militants. Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak quickly dismissed the threat as insurgent propaganda. He said the Taliban do not have the ability to launch a series of attacks across Afghanistan. Moreover, he said, intelligence reports show many of the Taliban commanders currently are across the border in Pakistan. “I doubt seriously that they have the capability to do something like what they claim,” he said. “I do believe it is a propaganda campaign rather than a reality.” A crucial test of the nine-year war is coming this summer, when a US-led military operation tries to clear the Taliban from the key southern city of Kandahar, the group's spiritual heartland. Insurgents have ramped up attacks there recently. On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the death of a government official in Arghandab in Kandahar province. Manan Khan, vice president of the Arghandab district shura and former police chief in the district, was killed Friday night along with two of his bodyguards, according to district chief Syed Ali said. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Karzai said Saturday that the US and its allies still have “miles to go” in Afghanistan and international forces have yet to secure large parts of the country. “We have traveled far together, but the international effort in Afghanistan still has miles to go,” said Karzai, who begins meetings in Washington Monday after months of rocky relations with the Obama administration. Karzai is hoping his upcoming trip will bring renewed legitimacy and the political backing he needs for possible peace talks with the Taliban. The Washington trip comes at a critical juncture in the war. At the same time that more troops and aid are moving into Afghanistan, the US has made it clear its involvement is not open-ended. President Barack Obama, who gathered his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan Thursday at the White House, wants to start pulling out troops in July 2011 if conditions allow.
