KABUL - A NATO plane crash in southern Afghanistan killed four international troops Saturday, the same day the Taliban announced its spring offensive.
The Taliban said it will target military and diplomatic sites with suicide bombers and infiltrate enemy forces to conduct deadly insider attacks.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said its security forces are prepared for the Taliban’s new campaign, which was to start today. “The Afghan National Army is ready to neutralize the offensive,” the ministry said.
Insurgents have escalated attacks to gain power and influence ahead of next year’s presidential election and the planned withdrawal of most U.S. and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. And U.S.-backed efforts to try to reconcile the Islamic militant movement with the Afghan government are gaining little traction.
The Taliban did not immediately claim responsibility for the plane crash. NATO said initial reports indicated no enemy activity in the area where the plane went down. Coalition personnel secured the site and were investigating the cause of the crash.
The brief NATO statement did not identify the victims, or say exactly where the crash occurred in Afghanistan. However, Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, deputy governor of the southern province of Zabul, said an aircraft belonging to foreign forces crashed Saturday afternoon in Shah Joy district.
In their announcement Saturday, the Taliban vowed to step up violent attacks now that winter is over and warmer weather has made travel and fighting easier. The militant group said it would use every possible tactic to “detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors.”
Taliban fighters, who seek to replace the elected Afghan government with one promoting a stricter interpretation of Islamic law, named their offensive after a legendary Muslim military commander, Khalid ibnal-Walid. Also known as the “Drawn Sword of God,” he was a companion of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
The Taliban threatened to infiltrate the Afghan security forces and conduct more attacks on Afghan policemen and soldiers as well as foreign troops.
Such attacks threaten the strength of the Afghan forces as they work to take over responsibility from coalition forces. The latest one occurred in March, when a member of a government-backed village defense unit shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan.
April has been the worst month for combat deaths so far this year. According to an Associated Press tally, 261 people - including civilians, Afghan security forces and foreign troops - have been killed in violence around the nation. During that time, 217 insurgents have died.
Last year during the month of April, 179 civilians, foreign troops and Afghan security forces and 268 insurgents were killed.
Still, U.S. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the security situation had improved across the country, with Afghan forces now leading 80 percent of all conventional operations.
As the traditional fighting season begins, the insurgents will face a combined Afghan force of 350,000 soldiers and police, he said.
“The insurgency can no longer use the justification that it is fighting foreign occupiers - that message rings hollow,” Dunford said in a statement.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid disagreed with that assessment.
“The foreign forces will be our primary targets. The second target will be the government of Kabul. The third one will be the other foreign countries who are acting against our mujahedeen,” or holy warriors, he said in an interview with AP Television News.
Also Saturday, anti-war protesters demonstrated outside a Royal Air Force base used to control drone flights over Afghanistan. Until last week, British drones were operated only from a U.S. Air Force base in Nevada.
The Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that a new drone-operating squadron had begun operating from RAF Waddington in eastern England.
The ministry said the Reaper drones are used for “intelligence and surveillance missions,” but also are equipped with missiles and bombs.
Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 04/28/2013