Afghanistan was reeling yesterday from a Taliban assault on a military base in the nation’s east on Monday that killed at least 45 people and wounded as many as 70, most of them military personnel, provincial officials said.
There were fears that the death toll from the daytime assault on the base, which also serves as a training center for a pro-government militia and is run by the country’s intelligence service, was even higher.
The attack began when a suicide bomber drove a Humvee into a base in Maidan Wardak Province and detonated his load as he rammed the vehicle into the main building there, council member Khawanin Sultani said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The building collapsed from the explosion, which likely contributed to the high casualty numbers.
The Taliban, which in a statement claimed responsibility just hours after the attack, later said in a separate statement that they had met again on Monday with US representatives to discuss “ending the invasion of Afghanistan” in talks that were to continue yesterday.
They are meeting in Qatar, where the Taliban have a political office.
The simultaneousness of the events — the deadly attack and the Qatar meeting that was meant to pave way for peace talks aimed at resolving Afghanistan’s 17-year war — underscored the audacity of the insurgents in the face of stepped-up US peace efforts.
The Taliban, which now holds sway in almost half of Afghanistan, carry out attacks on a daily basis, mainly targeting the nation’s security forces.
The base that was hit is on the outskirts of Maidan Shar, the provincial capital, about 40km from Kabul.
Sultani said that after the bombing, four other attackers engaged in a shootout with Afghan troops and all the attackers were killed.
“The main building inside the base collapsed and most of the bodies were under the destroyed building,” he said.
A provincial security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that he personally counted as many as 75 bodies at the base.
There were fears the death toll would keep rising, he said, adding that the blast was so strong that even the windows of civilian homes were shattered.
There were no official statements from the government in Kabul and it was not known how many of the dead were members of the militia in training and how many were military and intelligence officers and instructors.
The Taliban statement on Monday said they had met with US representatives to discuss “ending the invasion of Afghanistan” in talks that were to continue yesterday.
Last week, the Taliban threatened to walk away from the talks, accusing Washington of seeking to “expand the agenda” — presumably a reference to US demands that the insurgents hold direct talks with the Kabul government.
The Taliban view the Afghan government as a US puppet and have long insisted they will only negotiate directly with Washington.
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