More than 150 Afghan soldiers killed by Taliban suicide attackers at army base

[BHarwana]

Brazen assault kills eight soldiers on a major army base in Balkh province during Friday prayers.

Afghan troops were reportedly engaging Taliban fighters who entered the base in army uniforms [File: Aijaz Rahi/AP]
Taliban fighters dressed in military uniforms attacked a key army base in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing eight soldiers and wounding 11 others.

The attack occurred near a mosque on the military base near Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province, during Friday prayers, officials said.

"Gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms have launched a complex attack on an army compound in the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif," defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP news agency. "So far we have counted eight dead and 11 wounded, all military, there are no civilian casualties."

Waziri said five attackers were killed in the battle, including one wearing a suicide vest who was shot by soldiers before he could trigger his explosives. He said one of the attackers was caught and arrested.

The base is the headquarters of the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps. It covers most of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz province, which has been the scene of heavy fighting.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from the capital Kabul, said the assailants had been surrounded by Afghan commandos.

"The attack followed a familiar pattern with a suicide bomb ramming into the gates of the base and detonating. After that the attackers were able to get inside," McBride reported, quoting an interior ministry statement.

"The attackers were heavily armed with suicide vests and automatic weapons, trying to cause as much damage as they can."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault.

"Our fighters have inflicted heavy casualties on the Afghan army stationed there," he said.

An army officer told Reuters news agency the attackers used military uniforms and vehicles to pass three checkpoints before launching their assault.

The Western-backed Afghan government is locked in a prolonged war with the Taliban, as well as other armed groups. The country has seen rising violence since the US-led invasion in October 2001 ousted the Taliban-led government.


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...y-base-north-afghanistan-170421134021613.html

 

[BHarwana]

More than 50 feared dead in Taliban attack on Afghan forces base – US military
https://www.rt.com/news/385624-afghan-military-base-attack-killed/

 

[Khan_21]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rs-killed-taliban-suicide-attackers-army-base

Men disguised themselves as army personnel and passed first security gate before one blew himself up at second gate and another attacked dining facility




Afghan national army troops arrive near the site of an ongoing attack on an army headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan on Friday. Photograph: Anil Usyan/Reuters
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Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul and Spencer Ackerman in New York

Friday 21 April 2017 18.20 BSTLast modified on Friday 21 April 2017 19.04 BST

More than 50 Afghan soldiers have been after killed Taliban suicide attackers disguised as army personnel targeted a national army base in northern Afghanistan, in the worst single attack on the country’s security forces in recent years.

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.

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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.

Mazar-i-Sharif is one of Afghanistan’s safest cities but home to large military facilities, which also house some foreign troops.

In November, the German consulate in the city came under attack when a truck strapped with explosives rammed into the compound, killing six and injuring over 120, all Afghans.

Donald Trump said little about Afghanistan during his election campaign but is currently conducting a policy review toward America’s longest war.

His national security adviser, army Lt Gen HR McMaster, himself an Afghanistan war veteran, visited the country last weekend and met with President Ashraf Ghani.

In January, Nicholson requested thousands more US troops to aid the Afghan security forces, which suffered more than 6,785 deaths and more than 10,000 injured in 2016.

The commander called the high levels of casualties a “major concern” and attributed them to poor leadership and an overreliance on static checkpoints

It seems nobody in the base was armed that is why so many soldiers died ?

 

[BHarwana]

Unconfirmed reports of RAW agents being killed in the attack. No confirmation of this report till now

 

[takeitwithyou]

Pakistan military supports these Taliban, why?

They kill fellow Muslims, they kill civilians and in this case men who were praying. ISIS jr partner.

 

[Vapnope]

God! Rip to departed souls. This is a sad development.

 

[Hareeb]

Attackers went straight to mosque-- Taliban killing people while praying? Seems like another false flag attack by RAW & NDS nexus, which we are talking about in other thread.

 

[Sugarcane]

Have AT attacked people praying in mosque before or it's first time?

Rest in Peace..

 

[New World]

Have AT attacked people praying in mosque before or it's first time?

Rest in Peace..

i think this will be the first time, IF this attack is real, nowadays lots of false flag attacks are happening just like killing of a UAE diplomats..

 

[Crixus]

Guys just decide first whether R&AW agents get kiiled or carried out the false flag operation with NDS ....

on topic RIP soldiers

Unconfirmed reports of RAW agents being killed in the attack.

Attackers went straight to mosque-- Taliban killing people while praying? Seems like another false flag attack by RAW & NDS nexus, which we are talking about in other thread.

 

[BHarwana]

Guys just decide first whether R&AW agents get kiiled or carried out the false flag operation with NDS ....

on topic RIP soldiers

It says unconfirmed. I don't have a reliable source for now. If I get one will surely provide. It is just a developing story.

 

[Crixus]

No prob man ..... any ways 50 people lost lives may go give strength to their families

It says unconfirmed. I don't have a reliable source for now. If I get one will surely provide. It is just a developing story.

 

[BHarwana]

KABUL — Disguised in army uniforms, a group of Taliban insurgents stormed an army base in Afghanistan’s most secure northern Balkh province Friday, killing several dozen soldiers in one of the bloodiest such attacks in years, officials said.

There were conflicting reports as to how the guerrillas made their way inside the vast, heavily fortified base, with some reports saying they managed to enter the compound of the 209 Corps by joining a convoy of military vehicles returning to the base from a restive neighboring province.

An army spokesman for the region, Qahar Aram, gave a different account in a phone interview. He said one of the bombers detonated a vehicle laden with explosives at the main entrance of the base, paving the way for as many as nine insurgents to rush inside.

From the gate, they headed to a dining facility and a mosque, he said.

The attack comes six weeks after local affiliates of the Islamic State stormed Afghanistan’s major military hospital in Kabul, killing at least 50 people.

“We have conflicting reports on casualties,” Mohammad Abdeh, a lawmaker from Balkh, said by phone. “Some reports say more than 60 were killed and over 50 wounded, some put the toll much higher. Authorities are collecting the bodies and we will have a better picture of the situation tomorrow.”

Most of the carnage was caused by one of the suicide bombers near the mosque, he said.

The militants managed to pass two security gates in two army vehicles, pretending to be carrying army wounded for treatment inside the base, he said.

Aram said the militants opened fire on anyone they encountered outside the mosque and the dining hall. The attack was quelled after a gun battle lasting more than six hours, with responding troops hampered by being unable to distinguish the assailants from friendly troops because of the army uniforms the attackers wore.

Aram said he was aware of only 10 deaths among Afghan troops.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.3fa2b1912506

“The attack on the 209 Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban,” Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, said in a statement. “They killed soldiers at prayer in a Mosque and others in a dining facility.”

 

[GiannKall]

Most worrying is the fact that they have gained must influence in northern Afghanistan. While US focuses in provinces like Helmand and Nangarhar, the rebels control the majority of the countryside in the north. With US bombs you can hold Taliban at distance and make then incapable of capturing big cities but sooner or later they will control all countryside.
The map will looke like when Soviets started leaving

 

[YeBeWarned]

@Horus