Taliban fails to intense attacks at midpoint of current fighting season: Dunford

Taliban’s new leadership has been surprisingly slow to ramp up attacks at the midpoint of the traditional fighting season, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Dunford said he is cautiously encouraged by a relative slackening of the Taliban’s aggressive tactics.

Citing “a lower level of violence from the Taliban than we have seen in the past,” Dunford was quick to say that while he believes Afghan forces have seized battlefield momentum, there are no assurances that the balance won’t shift again.

“We’ve seen peaks and valleys with the Taliban before, but certainly on the ground right now the Afghan forces have the momentum,” he said.

Dunford spent three days in Afghanistan speaking with U.S. and Afghan commanders, troops and officials. On Sunday he met with President Ashraf Ghani and other senior members of Ghani’s government in Kabul.

However, The Afghan Taliban said on Tuesday they were launching new operations after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, dismissing reports that they had been weakened following a change of leadership in May.

The Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said reports of a reduction in insurgent operations during Ramadan reflected a natural slowdown during one of the hottest periods of the year when Muslims are required not to eat or drink during daylight hours.

“But the commanders of the American occupation forces and the puppet figures in Kabul got the wrong impression from this situation and think that Mujahideen have been weakened or are facing problems due to the change in leadership,” he said

In the meantime, Afghan army deputy spokesman, Muhammad Radmanish says that Taliban cannot stand against Afghan forces because they have been divided into eight groups.

Spokesman of the interior ministry considers the victory of Afghan security forces in battle fields in three Tips; first, President’s decree for suppressing the terror groups.

Second, using Commandos and Special Forces in the operations and third, targeting insurgent groups in US forces air strikes.

According to the letter of National Defense Ministry to Ariananews, the combat networks killed Mullah Shamsullah in Khan district of Badakhshan province, Mullah Mansour in Qalayee Zal area of Kunduz province and Mullah Hamza in Greshk district of the Helmand province in the past 24 hours.