The Taliban says its annual spring offensive will be a mix of conventional, guerrilla and suicide attacks on Afghan and foreign forces, underlining the challenges facing the U.S. administration as it weighs its options in Afghanistan. 


Dubbed Operation Mansouri, after former leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour who was killed last year in a U.S. drone strike, the spring offensive announcement on Friday comes a week after one of the most devastating attacks on Afghan forces since the Taliban was driven from power more than 15 years ago. 


That attack, by a group of around 10 suicide commandos, killed at least 135 Afghan soldiers on a base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to official figures although the actual toll is believed to be as much as double that number

Source: NNA