Taliban destroy Afghan army base, kill 16

The insurgents abducted two soldiers and wounded three others in the attack

In this photograph taken on August 27, 2017 an Afghan Commandos stands guard while an Afghan Air Force helicopter flies past during a combat training exercise at the Shorab Military Camp in Lashkar Gah in the Afghan province of Helmand. - Marines in Afghanistan's Helmand say Donald Trump's decision to keep boots on the ground indefinitely gives them "all the time in the world" to retake the province, once the symbol of US intervention but now a Taliban stronghold. They may need it. At the hot, dusty Camp Shorab, where many of the recently deployed Marines train their Afghan counterparts in flat, desert terrain, the Afghans admit their army still cannot fight alone. (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)

An Afghan Commandos stands guard while an Afghan Air Force helicopter flies past during a combat training exercise at the Shorab Military Camp in Lashkar Gah in the Afghan province of Helmand. AFP

Associated Press

Nov 11, 2018

Afghan officials say the Taliban have attacked a small army base, killing 12 members of the security forces and leaving behind explosives that killed four tribal elders who had come to help collect the bodies.

Safder Mohsini, head of provincial council in the northern Baghlan province, says the insurgents abducted two soldiers and wounded three others in the attack, which began late Saturday. He says the militants burned down the base before planting bombs around it.

The Taliban claimed the attack and said they seized ammunition from the base.

The Taliban carry out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting Afghan security forces at rural outposts. Seventeen years after the U.S.-led invasion, the insurgents control nearly half the country.