Remnants of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime have decided to extend their guerrilla attacks on the U.S.-led forces and their Afghan allies to the north of the country, according to a news report.
The Pakistani newspaper, The News, quoted a Taliban spokesman Mohammad Amin as saying the Taliban soldiers had staged some attacks on the U.S.-backed Afghan government forces in some northern provinces in recent weeks.
Amin said these guerrilla attacks would now be "stepped-up and spread to all of northern Afghanistan in the coming days and weeks".
Amin said the Taliban had named Mullah Mohammad Asim Muttaqi as its military commander for northern Faryab province bordering Turkmenistan and also appointed two deputies for him to intensify attacks against the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a senior commander in northern Afghanistan.
"All three have reached Faryab to organise resistance against Dostum and other pro-U.S. commanders," he said.
The guerrilla attacks by the mainly Pashtun Taliban have so far been concentrated in the Pashtun-dominated southern Afghanistan that remained the main heartland for the hardline Islamic regime until it was ousted from power in 2001.
More than 100 Afghan government soldiers and civilians have been killed in these attacks this year.
The shadowy Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, last month approved a new deputy military commander for southern Afghanistan and ordered him to intensify guerrilla attacks on U.S. and Afghan government forces.
The whereabouts of Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - blamed for masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States - remain unknown more than 18 months since the start of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.