More than 100 killed and wounded in Taliban attack on Afghanistan army base

The US military has said that 'more than 50' Afghan soldiers were killed, while an Afghan army source who was on the base at the time put the death toll as high as 150, with dozens more wounded.

Afghan soldiers stand guard as military ambulances enter an army base in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province, a day after it was targeted by Taliban militants in Balkh province on April 22, 2017. Mutalib Sultani / EPAShow less

Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan // More than 100 Afghan soldiers were killed and wounded in a Taliban attack on an army base in northern Afghanistan.

The defence ministry did not give a breakdown of the casualties in the hours-long attack near Mazar-i-Sharif city on Friday.

The US military has said that “more than 50” Afghan soldiers were killed, while an Afghan army source who was on the base at the time put the death toll as high as 150, and dozens wounded.

“They entered the compound using two army trucks with machine guns on top of them. They opened fire on everyone. And then they entered the mosque and dining room, killing everyone indiscriminately,” Mohammad Hussain, an army officer wounded in the attack, said.

Two of the attackers blew themselves up in the raid, which was claimed by the Taliban late on Friday.

The attack is the latest on a military installation and underscores rising insecurity as Afghanistan braces for the spring fighting season.

All of the attackers were dressed in Afghan army uniforms, the source said.

Noorullah, a second officer injured in the attack, speculated the militants may have had “inside help”, noting they had to pass through at least seven checkpoints before entering the compound.

The defence ministry said Afghan forces had killed all the attackers, without specifying how many there were. Earlier, it had said one of the assailants had been detained.

The military source at the base said there were at least 10 attackers, adding that the soldiers were “young recruits who had come for training”.

The toll could change, the defence ministry said, adding it would provide more information once an investigation was completed.

Afghan officials have been known to minimise casualty figures in some major attacks on military sites, such as in early March when gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the country’s largest military hospital in Kabul, killing dozens of people.

Officials put the death toll in that attack at 50, but security sources and survivors said more than 100 were killed.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani flew to Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday to pay a “courtesy visit” to wounded soldiers, his office said, while General John Nicholson, the senior US commander in Afghanistan, praised Afghan commandos for bringing the “atrocity to an end”.

Afghan security forces, beset by killings and desertions, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led Nato troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

According to US watchdog Sigar, casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 per cent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed.

The attack on the Kabul hospital in March came a week after 16 people were killed in simultaneous Taliban suicide assaults on two security compounds in the capital.

More than a third of Afghanistan is outside government control and many regions are fiercely contested by various insurgent groups, as Kabul’s repeated bids to launch peace negotiations with the Taliban have failed.

*Agence France-Presse