By Hadi Mayar

    Kabul, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Downplaying the ongoing Khanjar or "Strike of the Sword" operation against Taliban insurgents in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, Taliban militants would launch a counter-operation to halt troops' onslaught, the outfit's spokesman said.

    "We have chalked out our strategy to counter the fresh offensive of U.S. Marines in Helmand and surrounding areas and Inshaullah [God willing] the foreign forces will concede another defeat," Qari Yousaf Ahmedi, senior Taliban spokesman, told media in Pakistan's Quetta city by satellite phone from an unknown location claimed to be in southern Afghanistan days ago.

    "We have codenamed our counter-operation the Iron Net. And it will actually turn out to be an iron net for the Marines and their allies," he said.

    Taliban's announcement came as 4,000 U.S. Marines backed by 650Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been pushing ahead a massive operation since July 2 in Helmand province - one of several Taliban's centers of gravity in southern Afghanistan.

    Helmand and the neighboring Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces in the south have all along remained the rock bed of Taliban's resistance against the U.S.-led coalition forces ever since the removal of Taliban regime in late 2001.

    In addition to the ongoing Afghan-US Marines' operation, Khanjar (Strike of Sword) two other simultaneous operations dubbed Tiger Claw and Atal (Hero) are also underway against Taliban insurgents in parts of the southern region.

    Since launching the operation in July 2, the troops, according to Afghan Defense Ministry, have so far restored government's authority in Khanshin district; while the districts of Bagran, Disho and Washir are still out of the government's control.

    The militants have carried out a series of suicide attacks and roadside bombings over the past one week, leaving dozens of people including at least 10 foreign soldiers and civilians dead.

    To effectively pound Taliban hideouts, the international forces have no option but to resort to air assaults. Earlier this week, they claimed killing 27 Taliban insurgents in a similar raid in Helmand province.

    However, such strikes are more susceptible to cause civilian casualties, which, in the past, have aroused widespread criticism of the coalition forces.

    Apart from effecting bomb blasts, in which they mostly target highway bridges and military vehicles, they also fired a volley of rockets on government interests.

    Gulab Mangal, the provincial governor of Helmand, has said that the Taliban attacks threatened development work in the province. He called for additional troops to make the ongoing operation a success.

    Admiral Mike Mullen, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, also did not seem very much optimistic when he addressed a news conference in Washington on Thursday.

    "U.S. enemies grow increasingly sophisticated," he said while insisting that the United States had to turn around the Afghan conflict in the next one-and-a-half years.

    Seen in this background, the bravado demonstrated by the Taliban undoubtedly speaks of certain difficult times for the international forces ahead.

    On Friday, the shadowy Taliban leadership - which rarely gives media statements - described the U.S. Marines' operation as a failure.

    "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (name of Taliban ousted regime) believes the current U.S. and British operations in Helmand province will prove being another fiasco," a fresh statement pasted on the Taliban website said.

    "They [international forces] claiming prior to the operations that these operations would force the Taliban to pull out of Helmand. Yet it is but an effort in fiasco. Their advancement has been blocked and neutralized. They are just frustrating," said the statement.

    However, a critical showdown seems imminent as Washington's morale also seems high.

    During his Thursday's press conference, Admiral Mullen sounded confident that "the U.S. forces will meet their goal."