More than 100 Afghan soldiers were killed or wounded in a coordinated Taliban attack on an army base in northern Afghanistan, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said yesterday.
The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies assisting a much larger Afghan force in the war against the Taliban and other Islamist militants.
The attack was condemned by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah among others. Casualties feared: "officials #Afghanistan", Tolo news reported.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday the attack on the base was retribution for the recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan.
The attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by the Taliban, happened at an army command centre a few miles from Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh.
"I had just finished my prayers and was outside the mosque when an army pickup sped towards us", said another wounded officer, who asked not to be named as his family had not been notified.
In a separate statement, India's External Affairs Ministry said the terror attack is "a stark reminder of the need to immediately dismantle the safe havens and sanctuaries that support and sustain terrorism in Afghanistan from outside its borders".
A local official said the toll is expected to rise further as some of the injured are in critical condition.
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Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said Taliban militants wearing Army uniforms stormed the compound during Friday prayers. It also came five months after a suicide bomber managed to enter the main USA military base at Bagram, near Kabul, killing four people.
At least 10 Taliban militants were also killed in the fighting and one attacker was detained.
The attack triggered global shockwaves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the Taliban.
"What Taliban did in Mazar today (Friday) was against all values", he said.
While the Afghan military did not give an exact figure of the dead and injured, the Balkh Provincial Council in its statement said over 100 soldiers had been killed and more than 60 others were wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan said that Taliban commander Quari Tayib had been killed in a coalition air strike.
Atiqullah Amarkhail, an Afghan military analyst and retired general, said Saturday that Afghan forces must develop a counter-strategy for such attacks.
Afghan security forces, beset by killings and desertions, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.
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