Taliban announced that it would launch its annual "spring offensive" across Afghanistan on Thursday, threatening to target the US-led NATO troops and their allies with renewed vigor, AFP reported Wednesday.

Taliban announced that it would launch its annual "spring offensive" across Afghanistan on Thursday, threatening to target the US-led NATO troops and their allies with renewed vigor, AFP reported Wednesday.

The group stated on its website that its primary targets would be “foreign invaders, their advisors, their contractors, all those who help them militarily and in intelligence", adding that “Al-Farouq –the code name of the offensive- spring offensive will be launched on May 3 all over Afghanistan.”

This announcement came hours after Taliban militants armed with guns, suicide vests and a bomb-laden car, attacked a heavily fortified compound used by Westerners in Kabul, killing seven people and wounding more than a dozen others.

The militants said the attack was “in defiance of US President Barack Obama's call that the war was ending” during a visit to Afghanistan on the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death on Wednesday.

The statement also indicated that new and tested war tactics will be implemented in the “Al-Farouq” operation and that “top priority will be given to safeguarding the lives and wealth of civilians.”