Kabul. More than 50 Afghan soldiers have been killed after Taliban suicide attackers disguised as army personnel targeted a national army base in northern Afghanistan. It’s the deadliest attack in the country since July 2016, when two Isis suicide bombers killed 80 Hazara protesters.
According to Zulmay Wesa, commander of 209th corps in Balkh province, a group of suicide attackers manning at least two Afghan national army vehicles managed to pass the first security gate on Friday afternoon. When they were stopped at the second gate, one of the attackers blew himself up, and the rest entered the base, Wesa said. They went straight to the mosque where ANA soldiers were praying, and opened fire.
“After prayer we went outside and saw an army vehicle with three to five people in. They came out and opened fire with Kalashnikovs,” said a bodyguard at the base, asking not to be named. Elsewhere on the base, at least one attacker went on a shooting rampage in a dining facility, according to an American security official. He also confirmed that “probably more than 50” had been killed in the attack.
The US military confirmed that coalition personnel were present at the Mazar-i-Sharif base, but there were no reports of casualties. In a statement, the US military in Afghanistan condemned the attack.
“The attack on the 209th Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban. They killed soldiers at prayer in a mosque and others in a dining facility,” US commander John Nicholson said in the statement. The attack comes a month after militants disguised as doctors stormed an army hospital in the capital, Kabul, and killed at least 38 wounded soldiers and doctors.
It is the deadliest Taliban attack since April 2016, when suicide bombers killed more than 60 people in an attack on an intelligence headquarters in central Kabul. That attack was the deadliest in an urban area since the beginning of the war in 2001.
