Taliban kill 140 troops in attack on military base

AS MANY as 140 Afghan soldiers were killed by Taliban insurgents disguised in army uniforms in what could be the deadliest attack ever on a military base in the country.

Officials in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif said the death toll from Friday’s raid was likely to be even higher with many others wounded.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government had not yet released figures.

An official in Washington had initially put the toll at more than 50 killed and wounded.

The Taliban fighters, driving military vehicles, talked their way into the base and opened fire on soldiers eating in a canteen and leaving a mosque after prayers, according to the officials. The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles.

At least ten militants were reported to have been killed in the fighting and one attacker detained. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement yesterday that the attack was retribution for the recent killings of several of its leaders in northern Afghanistan.

The Nato-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base to train and assist Afghan forces, but no international troops were reported to have been involved.

The Western-backed Afghan government is locked in a prolonged war with the Taliban and other militant groups.

An Afghan soldier who heard the gunfire said: ‘I asked my friend what was happening, and he said, “Relax, it must be one of us.”

‘It wasn’t. It was the Taliban.’