! Taliban Threatens to Stop Goat Fucking and Launch Fierce Attacks Sometime, Maybe in the Spring...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341590,00.html

Taliban Says it Will Increase Attacks in Afghanistan in the Spring

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban says it will use new techniques and draw

on years of fighting experience to again increase attacks in Afghanistan

this spring.

A statement attributed to Taliban senior commander Mullah Bradar also warns

Afghans working with the government to quit their jobs or risk being

targeted.

Bradar said the Taliban is aiming to collapse the government of President

Hamid Karzai. He said the militants would continue their attacks until the

government is ousted and U.S. and NATO forces withdraw.

U.S. and NATO military officials dismiss the idea of a Taliban spring

offensive and say the only offensive that will take place this year in

Afghanistan is one by Western and Afghan troops.

"It's the same old story, it's the same old nonsense," Mark Laity, the NATO

spokesman in Kabul, said Wednesday. "What are they saying they will do? More

destruction, more unhappiness, more misery. What is there that will present

any hope for the Afghan people?"

Violence has risen during the warmer months of spring and summer the last

several years, usually through a spike in roadside and suicide bombs. But

the Taliban does not have the number of fighters or the military equipment

needed to mount a conventional offensive against the U.S., NATO or Afghan

troops.

Still, last year was Afghanistan's most violent since the 2001 U.S.-led

invasion. More than 8,000 people were killed, including some 1,500

civilians, according to the U.N. But most of those deaths were of militants

killed in U.S. and NATO strikes.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry,

said the Taliban announcement was nothing but propaganda.

"In the past they've used all their power against the Afghan National Army,

but they failed," Azimi said. "Thousands of Taliban were killed last year.

The ANA has increased its numbers. Important Taliban leaders have been

killed."

The Afghan army, which is being trained and equipped by U.S. and other NATO

experts, now stands at 63,000 strong, Azimi said. The international

community has agreed to expand the army to 80,000 troops, though Azimi has

called for the force of 200,000.

Azimi also said the Taliban is suffering from infighting in its ranks,

including disagreements between Taliban leader Mullah Omar and powerful

Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.