Traces of death at Afghan army base attacked by Taliban

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan: The green mosque in the Afghan military compound attacked by Taliban militants is scarred – disfigured by bullet holes, blast marks and with blood splattered across the ceiling – telltale signs of the deaths of at least 144 young Afghan recruits.

Images filmed by an AFP journalist reveal some of the horror of one of the deadliest attacks ever perpetrated in Afghanistan.

The images and testimony collected there have helped piece together the unbridled brutality that ripped through the base, home to the 209th Army Corps, about 15 kilometres from the city of Mazar-i- Sharif.

Early on Friday afternoon, at the time of prayer, at least 10 men armed with guns and suicide vests travelling in Humvees and military trucks arrived at the first checkpoint leading to the base.

They were dressed in Afghan army uniforms, multiple sources have told AFP, fuelling suspicions of complicity on the 30,000-strong base, where Western instructors are sometimes called on as part of Nato’s training, assist and advise mission.

The militants passed the checkpoint, a huge portico, by persuading guards that they were rushing a seriously wounded colleague to hospital, a highranking security source with access to the base and to witnesses told AFP.

At the second checkpoint one officer became suspicious, the source said – only to have two of the militants trigger their suicide vests, as the rest hurtled past at full speed towards the mosque, roughly a kilometre from the entrance.

They knew the base, the source said, stressing the meticulous preparation involved – four of them had trained there in the past, and all carried valid passes.

They knew that in the part of the base they were headed no soldier was allowed to carry a weapon. — AFP