Taliban attack at Afghan base leaves dozens dead
Peace talks with U.S., cold winter not reducing violence.
The KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Taliban infiltrated an Afghan intelligence base Monday killing dozens who worked for the agency in what officials said was one of the deadliest attacks against the intelligence service in the 17-year war with the Taliban.
While the Afghan police and army have been dying in record numbers, the loss of elite intelligence forces — who are better trained and equipped — was another indication of the violence stretching the Afghan government’s defenses, even as the United States may be preparing to withdraw some of its troops.
The attack, early Monday morning, hours before the insurgents announced they had resumed peace talks with U.S. officials, was a sign, analysts said, of how violence is likely to grow deadlier even as the sides of the long war have indicated a willingness to seek a negotiated settlement.
Akhtar Mohammad Khan Tahiri, the head of the provincial council in Wardak province, where the base is located, said the target was a training center for pro-government militia members run by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.
The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said its fighters had detonated an armored Humvee full of explosives that “destroyed large parts of the base,” on the outskirts of the city of Maidan Shahar, before other suicide bombers arrived to raid the facility.
Several senior Afghan officials put the number of dead between 40 and 48, while as many as 60 more were wounded.
But Mohammad Sardar Bakhtyari, the deputy chief of Wardak’s provincial council, said the number of dead was higher, with the attack killing 50 intelligence personnel from a newly arrived unit out of the unit’s 150 members.
“First, the Humvee full of explosives drove inside the base with high speed,” Bakhtyari said. “Those intelligence officers who were at the first gate were wounded in the explosion, but the Humvee was detonated inside the base.”
“Then three other suicide attackers came with a white Toyota to kill those who were wounded,” he continued, “but those wounded NDS members opened fire on them and killed all of them. There was no long shootout.”