Mazar-i-Sharif: Taliban militants wearing Afghan army uniforms killed at least 50 soldiers in a gun and suicide attack at a base in northern Afghanistan, the USA military said, as the extremists ramp up their campaign against beleaguered government forces.
General Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said on Saturday that "more than a hundred soldiers were killed and wounded" in the attack, but he declined to discuss precise numbers.
In a separate statement, the External Affairs Ministry said: "India condemns in the strongest terms the deplorable terrorist attack in Mazar-e-Sharif on April 21 resulting in loss of lives, including the fearless personnel of the Afghan National Defence Forces".
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, swiftly took credit for the attack.
The attack occurred near a mosque and dining facility on the base as soldiers were leaving Friday prayers.
A presidential spokesman confirmed to VOA President Ashraf Ghani left Kabul for Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday to discuss and review the post-violence situation with provincial authorities.
The attack on a highly secured Afghan military facility has refueled criticism of the government's security measures and its policy in tackling the resurgent Taliban.
According to officials, five attackers were involved, including one suicide bomber who detonated an explosives belt and four gunmen who stormed the building.
Afghan national Army (ANA) troops arrive near the site of an ongoing attack on an army headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif northern Afghanistan April 21, 2017.
Los Angeles Clippers vs. Utah Jazz
Julia Mecham is a lifelong Jazz fan who, after not making the National Basketball Association herself, became a guitar teacher. He went right to work - making two three-pointers to power 10-0 run and push the lead to 110-80 with 4 1/2 minutes left.
The city is in Balkh province and the base is the headquarters of the 209th Shaheen Corps.
Ghani announced that Sunday would be a day of national mourning, with memorial services across the country's mosques and the Afghan flag flying at half-mast, in a statement issued by the Presidential Palace.
He said Afghan civilians were probably working at the base as well as soldiers.
"What Taliban did in Mazar today (Friday) was against all values", he said.
Two of the attackers blew themselves up in the raid, which was claimed by the Taliban late Friday and which underscores rising insecurity as Afghanistan braces for an intense spring fighting season.
The U.S. officially withdrew from the war in 2014, but maintains a presence of more than 8,000 troops in the International Coalition. In the first eight months of 2016, insurgent attacks killed close to 7,000 Afghan security forces, according to figures local officials shared with the US military.
That assault came a week after 16 people were killed in simultaneous Taliban suicide assaults on two security compounds in the capital.
ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack last month on Kabul's heavily fortified diplomatic quarter.
Comments