US, Afghan officials shrug off Afghanistan Taliban's threat of new offensive

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

The Afghanistan Taliban announced Saturday it would begin a new, nationwide campaign of attacks against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, as President Hamid Karzai heads to Washington for talks.

President Karzai’s visit and meeting with President Obama, due to take place Monday, is intended to repair a relationship that has grown increasingly rocky in recent months.

The Taliban’s announcement that it would begin an offensive on Monday appeared an attempt overshadow or harm Karzai’s trip.

Reuters reports that the Taliban announced it would target not only US and NATO troops, but Afghan government officials and foreign diplomats as well, using suicide and roadside bombings.

But the Associated Press reports that Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, who is traveling to the US with Karzai, dismissed the Taliban’s threat as propaganda, saying that the group did not have the ability to carry out such a campaign, and that intelligence shows many of its leaders are actually across the border in Pakistan.

Coalition leaders also said they doubted the Taliban had the ability to live up to their threat, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The paper reports the militants also promised to lay siege to Afghanistan’s major cities and blockade military bases, as well as assassinate government officials and target troops.

Coalition offensive on Kandahar

Coalition troops are preparing to launch an offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, after ousting the Taliban from control in neighboring Helmand Province. The 30,000 additional US troops Obama ordered to Afghanistan to help turn the tide against the Taliban have already begun to arrive.

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