Taliban attacks in Afghanistan kill 13
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban attackers armed with suicide bomb vests and assault rifles killed two people, one a foreigner, during a raid on a guesthouse near the Afghan parliament Saturday, authorities said, the latest attack in the capital as NATO troops withdraw from the country.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi did not identify the dead, only saying they worked for a foreign aid groupe. Security forces rescued six Afghans held hostage by the attackers during the assault, he said.
After storming the building in a residential suburb in west Kabul, one of the attackers detonated an explosives-packed suicide vest and security forces shot and killed the other two, Sediqqi and Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said.
The Taliban claimed the attack in a statement, saying they targeted “a secret missionary center.”
Meanwhile on Saturday, Taliban attacks killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers in southern Helmand province, including one on a base once held by NATO forces, said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.
The Taliban since Thursday have been launching assaults on the base , once known as Camp Bastion until the British handed it over last month.
Zwak said the Bastion attack killed at least six Afghan soldiers and 20 Taliban fighters and wounded 10 Afghan soldiers.
The other attack, a suicide bombing targeting a military base in the province’s Sangin district, killed five soldiers and wounded eight, he said.