The Taliban's latest threat

Reuters/NY Times:

The Taliban will stage a "massive" operation against Western troops in Afghanistan and civilians must stay away from them in order to avoid casualties, a spokesman for the group said on Sunday.

After the traditional winter lull, followed by last year's bloodiest fighting since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, the militants have stepped up their attacks in recent months against Afghan and foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military.

Foreign forces have already warned civilians to avoid their military convoys in the face of rising Taliban suicide attacks against them. These attacks have resulted in a series of mistaken killings of non-combatants by the foreign troops.

The Taliban's warning was issued through their military council, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.

"For the safety of civilians' lives, we ask all the Muslim and Afghan nation to (do) their best to keep (their) distance from occupying forces' convoys, bases and concentration areas," said Zabihullah Mujahid.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Taliban raids and operations by foreign forces in the past 16 months, more than 1,200 of them civilians.

Most of those killed have been Taliban, say Afghan and foreign commanders. But scores of foreign troops and hundreds of Afghan forces have also been killed.

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The casualty figures used by Reuters are grossly misleading. The vast majority of all casualties have been Taliban and those civilians that have been killed were largely the victims of the Taliban use of human shields or the Taliban's war crime of camouflaging themselves as civilians. It should also be noted that many times Taliban dead may be identified as civilian because they dress like civilians and do not carry any identifying uniforms are identification.

It is interesting that the so called Taliban spring offensive is being recast as a summer offensive. It should also be noted that the Taliban has had to change its tactics this year, because their attempt engage our forces in large units last year was a spectacular failure. They continue to be the most inept ambushers in the history of warfare.

Their latest tactic is to avoid engagement altogether and use either IEDs or human bomb attacks directed at NATO or US troops. That is what the latest warning is really about, and it comes from the anger that these attacks have caused in Afghanistan when civilians have been killed. The Taliban are still deeply unpopular in Afghanistan.