Taliban militants kill dozens in attack on Army base

KABUL — Dozens of soldiers were killed on Friday when Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers in military uniforms stormed an Afghan army base in northern Afghanistan, officials said.

The attack on the 209th Corps in Balkh province began around 1 p.m., in a crowded area where soldiers, most of them unarmed, were leaving Friday prayers or eating lunch.

A Western military official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the number of deaths could reach 70 or more. Zabiullah Kaker, a member of the Balkh provincial council, said people inside the army corps had told him that at least 66 soldiers were killed in the attack and that 74 others were wounded.

But Ahmad Javid Salim, a spokesman for the Afghan army’s commando forces who was at the scene of the attack, said at least 20 Afghan army soldiers were killed and 30 were wounded.

Six assailants dressed in military uniforms drove in two army vehicles past the first checkpoint, according to Lt. Col. Abdul Qahar Aram, a spokesman for the corps. At the second checkpoint, one of the suicide bombers blew up his explosives, allowing the militants to enter, take up positions and start firing at soldiers, who were leaving prayers or making their way to lunch.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack through a spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. In a message posted on Twitter, Mujahid said the assailants were led by four soldiers inside the base who had long been Taliban infiltrators.

Hashem Azimi, a member of Balkh provincial council, agreed that the attackers seemed to have had help from the inside, where, he said, at least five infiltrators joined them after they had breached the security measures.

“The two ranger vehicles had pretended that they were coming back from operations at some front line. They were all covered in dust,” Azimi said. “When they reached the gates of the army corps, they started firing and one of them got off the vehicle and blew himself up.”

The attack came weeks after militants entered the Afghan army’s main hospital in Kabul, the capital, and killed more than 50 people in a siege that lasted nearly seven hours. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that carnage.

Mujib Mashal and Najim Rahim are New York Times writers.