Massoud Andarabi, acting interior minister, said Monday that the Taliban failed to reach their goals this year.

Speaking at a naming ceremony for the police academy, now named for slain General Abdul Raziq, Andarabi said that the Taliban’s Alfath operation was a failure.

Andarabi said that security forces stopped the Taliban from reaching its goals.

“Afghanistan security forces gave rough lessons to the Taliban this year, and the operation launched by the Taliban….did not gain any new territory but instead faced intense resistance by security forces, said Andarabi.

Farid Afzali, commander of the newly-named General Abdul Raziq academy, said that now soldiers will graduate from the school with courage and the vision of Abdul Raziq.

“By naming a police academy in the name of the martyr Abdul Raziq, I wish that the new generation of police would make Raziq their role model and we will see hundreds of new Abdul Raziqs rise in the ranks of the police,” said Farid Afzali, the commander of General Abdul Raziq academy.

General Abdul Raziq died in a shooting on October 18, 2018, and the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Raziq’s body was laid to rest in Kandahar City.

Gen. Abdul Momin Hassankhail, head of the provincial National Directorate of Security (NDS), was killed in the shootout along with Raziq.

The provincial governor, Zalmai Wesa, and the commander of Maiwand 404 police zone, were wounded in the incident.

Gen. Austin Scott Miller, Commander of US and NATO Forces in Afghanistan, was close by when Reziq was killed.