The Afghan Taliban launched their “spring offensive” on Friday, heralding fresh fighting in the drawn-out conflict as embattled security forces struggle to recover from a devastating attack on a military base one week ago.

Operation Mansouri — named after the group’s former leader, killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2016 — will target foreign forces with “conventional attacks, guerilla warfare, complex martyrdom attacks, insider attacks”, an insurgent statement said. “The enemy will be targeted, harassed, killed or captured until they abandon their last posts,” it continued.

The annual spring offensive normally marks the start of the “fighting season”, though this winter, the Taliban continued to battle government forces, most successfully in last week’s attack on the military base outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The massacre last Friday saw insurgents armed with guns and suicide bombs slaughter at least 135 young recruits, according to the official toll, though multiple sources have claimed it is much higher. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry shrugged off the Taliban threats Friday, saying the offensive was “not something new”.

The Taliban statement also vowed a political approach in areas it controls that will focus on state-building and “establishing mechanisms for social justice and development”.