Some 45 people were killed and another 70 wounded in a Taliban-led attack in Afghanistan Monday.
According to CBN News, Taliban fighters launched an attack on a military base and training center in east Afghanistan. Many of the dead and injured were military officials.
Monday, a suicide bomber by-passed a barrier without being stopped and drove a Humvee into the base and detonated a bomb as he drove the vehicle into the main building. Security forces tried to stop him by shooting at him as he drove through the entrance gate.
Council member Khawanin Sultani said the building collapsed. Four other attackers also tried shooting at Afghan troops after the building was hit. Soldiers killed those four Taliban soldiers.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and released a statement saying they are meeting with U.S. officials to discuss “ending the invasion of Iraq.”
While there were some 150 military personnel at the base at the time of the attack, there are reports that the death toll could be higher. A security official told the AP anonymously that he counted some 75 dead.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was ordering an investigation into the attack, adding that the “enemy had carried out a terrorist attack against the intelligence agency’s personnel, killed and wounded a number of honest sons of this homeland who were defending their country and protecting their people.”
Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, a former deputy interior minister and a military analyst, called the attack a “tragedy and a big loss to the Afghan security forces.”
“Peace talks and negotiations are important and essential for Afghanistan, but not under these unacceptable circumstances,” Yarmand said. “If such attacks continue, there must be a cease-fire agreement first.”
Photo courtesy: Huib Scholten/Unsplash
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