Image copyright Reuters Image caption Afghan troops keep watch at the base near Mazar-e-Sharif after the attack

More than 100 Afghan soldiers were killed or wounded in a Taliban attack on an army base on Friday, the defence ministry has confirmed.

Fighting lasted for several hours near the city of Mazar-e Sharif in northern Balkh province.

Insurgents targeted those leaving Friday prayers at the base's mosque and others in a canteen, the army said.

The Taliban said in a statement they had carried out the attack, using suicide bombers to breach defences.

Earlier estimates put the death toll as high as 134, but a statement from the defence ministry on Saturday gave the figure of more than 100 killed or injured.

It is one of the deadliest tolls in a Taliban attack on the Afghan army.

At least 10 Taliban militants were also killed in the fighting and one attacker was detained.

The Afghan government has declared Sunday a day of national mourning.

Separately, the US military command in Afghanistan said that Taliban commander Quari Tayib had been killed in a coalition air strike.

It said that Tayib was "once known as the shadow Taliban governor of Takhar province" in the north-east, and was killed along with eight other Taliban fighters in the strike on 17 April.

The Taliban fighters who attacked the base wore army uniforms and drove through checkpoints to launch the raid, a military spokesman said.

One injured soldier, Mohammad Hussain, said: "When I came out of the mosque, three people with army uniforms and an army vehicle started shooting at us. Of course, they had some infiltrators inside the base, otherwise they would never have been able to enter.

"One of them sitting inside a vehicle had set up a machine gun at the car's window and shot everyone in his way."

President Ashraf Ghani flew to the area on Saturday and visited wounded troops.

US military spokesman John Thomas described the attack as a "significant" strike, but he praised Afghan commandos for bringing the "atrocity to an end".

Relatives' anger: Syed Anwar, BBC News, Kabul

Image caption Jan Agah from Jowzjan province lost a nephew in the attack

There are conflicting reports about casualties. The defence ministry confirmed more than 100 soldiers had been "killed or injured" but a security official in Mazar-e Sharif told the BBC that more than 100 had died, including a top military commander.

Relatives of some of the soldiers gathered outside the base to take possession of coffins. They all questioned the security measures in place at the main entrance.

"If strict inspections had taken place, the attackers would not have passed the first gate," said Jan Agah, from Jowzjan province. One of his nephews serving at the base died and another was injured in the attack.

The raid shows the Taliban can plan and carry out complex attacks. The militants said four of the attackers had served as soldiers for a long time and had knowledge of every corner of the base.

The base at Mazar-e-Sharif is home to the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps, responsible for providing security to most of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz province - which has seen heavy recent fighting.

Several German and other foreign soldiers are reported to be garrisoned there.

Last month about 50 people were reported to have died when militants believed to be from the group known as Islamic State targeted patients and staff at a military hospital in Kabul with guns, grenades and knives.

Also in March the Taliban said they had captured the crucial south Afghan district of Sangin after a year-long battle.</s>MAZAR-I-SHARIF/KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - President Ashraf Ghani declared a national day of mourning after scores of soldiers were killed by Taliban fighters disguised as fellow soldiers, in the deadliest attack of its kind on an Afghan military base.

The defense ministry has said more than 100 died or were injured in the Friday attack in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but no exact numbers have been released.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters at least 140 soldiers were killed and many others wounded. Other officials said the toll was likely to be even higher.

The attack starkly highlighted the difficulty of the long struggle by the Afghan government and its international backers to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

After arriving in Mazar-i-Sharif to visit the base on Saturday, Ghani ordered that flags be flown at half mast on Sunday in memory of the troops who died.

Ghani held an emergency meeting with senior security officials and called for a “serious” investigation into the attack.

In a statement online, he condemned the attack as “cowardly” and the work of “infidels”.

Related Coverage Confusion, chaos after Taliban breach Afghan base in deadly attack

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, made their way into the base and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials.

They used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and several detonated suicide vests packed with explosives, officials said.

Witnesses described a scene of confusion as soldiers were uncertain about the attackers’ true identity.

“It was a chaotic scene and I didn’t know what to do,” said one army officer wounded in the attack. “There was gunfire and explosions everywhere.”

The base is the headquarters of the Afghan National Army’s 209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz, a province which has seen heavy fighting.

TALIBAN “RETRIBUTION”

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.

Coffins containing the bodies of Afghan national Army (ANA) soldiers killed in April 21's attack on an army headquarters are lined up in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan April 22, 2017. Presidential Palace /Handout via REUTERS

The U.S. military command in Kabul said an American air strike had killed a commander, Quari Tayib, and eight other Taliban on April 17.

Mujahid said the attack on the base killed as many as 500 soldiers, including senior commanders.

Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathizers who had infiltrated the army and served for some time, Mujahid said. The Afghan army did not confirm that.

The NATO-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base to train and assist Afghan forces but coalition officials said no foreign troops had been hurt.

U.S. Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesperson for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, said there were a small number of coalition force advisers on the base at the time of the attack.

“They sheltered in place during the incident. The Afghan Special Forces brought the attack to an end,” Salvin said.

The commander of coalition forces, U.S. General John Nicholson, said in a statement on Friday that the attack “shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban.”

German forces have long led the international mission in northern Afghanistan.

Slideshow (7 Images)

In Berlin, military officials said the work of the mission on the base would be on hold for one or two days while the Afghan army investigated the attack, but would resume.

“The situation shows that we cannot stop supporting, training and advising our Afghan partners,” a German Operations Command spokesman said.</s></s>ISLAMABAD — A Taliban suicide raid on a major military base in northern Afghanistan is reported to have left at least 140 people dead, mostly soldiers, in the deadliest attack on Afghan forces since 2001.

Witnesses said a group of 10 heavily armed suicide bombers aboard two army vehicles and disguised as government soldiers stormed the Afghan National Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps Headquarters Friday in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the northern Balkh province.

Local television stations quoted an unnamed security official and regional politicians Saturday as saying that “at least 140 soldiers were killed in Friday afternoon’s attack… and at least 100 soldiers were also wounded.”

Survivors being treated at a city hospital told local TOLOnews TV they believed without “inside help” it would not have been possible for the attackers to make their way to the center of the heavily fortified military base where the mosque is located.

“We are soldiers from the corps but we cannot enter the base easily, but it is unfortunate that suicide bombers managed to enter the base easily. My foot was wounded in this incident,” a wounded solider identified as Lotfullah told the private television station.

According to local officials, one group of Taliban assailants sprayed Afghan soldiers with bullets as they were leaving a mosque following afternoon prayers, while another group stormed a dining facility at the military compound before Afghan commandos surrounded and engaged them in fierce gun-battles.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, swiftly took credit for the attack. He released fresh details to reporters on Saturday along with a picture of the purported bombers. Mujahid claimed the siege lasted for ten hours and “up to 500 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded, including key officers.”

The spokesman said the deadly raid was a retaliation for the recent killings of Taliban shadow governors for the neighboring Kunduz and Baghlan provinces along with a number of colleagues by U.S. backed Afghan forces.

He warned that Friday’s attack on the army headquarters in Balkh is “a message for all the enemy soldiers, police, intelligence operatives and relevant (Afghan) institutions that this year’s (Taliban) operations will be more brutal and painful for them.”

Separately, the U.S. military confirmed Saturday the killing of top Taliban commander in an airstrike this week. An official statement identified the slain man as Qari Tayyib, once known as the Taliban’s shadow governor of the northern Takhar province. It said the strike at Qari’s compound in the nearby Kunduz province also eliminated eight Taliban fighters.

“Tayyib had been a target-of-interest since 2001 and was directly responsible for the deaths of U.S. service members in Afghanistan,” according to the U.S. military.

Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas described the incident as a “significant attack from enemy forces” and said “we are helping the Afghan forces in any way that we can.”

The Afghan military base that came under attack on Friday houses tens of thousands of soldiers who are regularly engaged in anti-Taliban operations in troubled northern regions of the country.

Military advisers and trainers from NATO’s U.S.-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan are also stationed at the base. But there were no reports of foreign troop casualties.

A presidential spokesman confirmed to VOA President Ashraf Ghani left Kabul for Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday to discuss and review the post-violence situation with provincial authorities. Ghani visited wounded soldiers shortly after arriving in the city.

Friday’s attack followed U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster’s first visit to Kabul earlier this week where he vowed to strengthen the call for defeating Taliban insurgents on the battleground who refuse to join an Afghan government-led peace process.

The attack on a highly secured Afghan military facility has refueled criticism of the government’s security measures and its policy in tackling the resurgent Taliban.

Afghan security forces have suffered massive casualties since U.S.-led foreign combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014. In the first eight months of 2016, insurgent attacks killed close to 7,000 Afghan security forces, according to figures local officials shared with the U.S. military.

A truck bombing this past November in the provincial capital targeted the German consulate, killing six Afghans and injuring more than 100 others.

Friday’s insurgent assault was the deadliest since April 2016, when Taliban suicide bombers stormed an office of the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul, killing at least 60 people.

The latest violence came a month after suicide bombers assaulted the country’s largest military hospital in the Afghan capital, killing about 40 people and wounding dozens more. Doctors and soldiers were among the victims.

That attack was claimed by loyalists of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Ekram Shinwari in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
• Afghanistan Declares National Mourning After Army Base Attack Kills More Than 130
• Survivors Say Insurgents Had Help From Inside Base
• Ghani Calls On Nation To Raise Its Voice Against Terrorism</s>At least 140 Afghan soldiers were killed by Taliban attackers apparently disguised in military uniforms, officials said on Saturday, in what would be the deadliest attack ever on an Afghan military base.

One official in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the attack occurred, said on Saturday at least 140 soldiers were killed and many others wounded. Other officials said the toll was likely to be even higher. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government has yet to release exact casualty figures.

The defence ministry said more than 100 soldiers were killed or wounded. The attack starkly highlighted the struggle by the Afghan government and its international backers to defeat a Taliban insurgency that has gripped Afghanistan for more than a decade. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited the base on Saturday, and in a statement online, condemned the attack as “cowardly” and the work of “infidels”.

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, made their way into the base and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials. They used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and several detonated suicide vests packed with explosive, officials said. Witnesses described a scene of confusion as soldiers were uncertain who the attackers were.

“It was a chaotic scene and I didn’t know what to do,” said one army officer wounded in the attack. “There was gunfire and explosions everywhere.” The base is the headquarters for the Afghan National Army’s 209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz, a province which has seen heavy fighting.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday the attack on the base was retribution for recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan. On Saturday, the U.S. military command in Kabul said that an American air strike killed a Taliban commander, Quari Tayib, on April 17. Eight other Taliban were also killed the strike, according to a statement by the command.

Mujahid said the attack on the base killed as many as 500 soldiers, including senior commanders. Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathisers who had infiltrated the army and served for some time, Mujahid said.

That has not been confirmed by the Afghan army. The NATO-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base where the attack occurred to train and assist Afghan forces but coalition officials said no foreign troops were hurt or killed.

“The attack on the 209th Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban,” the commander of coalition forces, U.S. General John Nicholson, said in a statement on Friday. German forces have long led the international mission in northern Afghanistan.

In Berlin, military officials said advising missions on the base will be on hold for one or two days while the Afghan army investigates, but that work would resume. “The situation shows that we cannot stop supporting, training and advising our Afghan partners,” a German Operations Command spokesman said.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now</s>Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers killed more than 100 Afghan Army soldiers Friday at a base in northern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defense. It is one of the deadliest attacks on an Afghan military base since the war began.

The Taliban fighters disguised themselves as fellow soldiers as they launched the attack on those attending Mosque prayer services on a compound of the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps in Balkh Province, reports The Associated Press.

"Today, there was even a shortage of coffins," Ibrahim Khairandish, a member of the provincial council in Balkh Province, tells The New York Times.

An Afghan army spokesman tells CNN the attack lasted six hours and by the end at least five attackers were killed and one was arrested.

A U.S. Navy spokesman tells NPR's Tom Bowman, while there were more than two dozen Coalition forces at the base at the time of the attack, they sheltered in place and there were no Coalition casualties.

By Saturday, the Taliban had claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying the attack was carried out by ten assailants as retribution for the recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders.

As Tom notes, the attack comes shortly after National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster's visit to Afghanistan, amid calls for the U.S. to send a few thousand additional troops to train Afghans.

The U.S. officially withdrew from the war in 2014, but maintains a presence of more than 8,000 troops in the International Coalition.</s>President Ashraf Ghani calls for an investigation into the deadliest ever Taliban attack on an Afghan military base.

President Ashraf Ghani declared a national day of mourning on Saturday after scores of soldiers were killed by Taliban fighters disguised as fellow troops in the deadliest attack of its kind on an Afghan military base.

Afghan officials said the death toll jumped to 140 following Friday's assault on the army headquarters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Another 160 people were wounded in the attack, Mohammad Ibrahim Khair Andesh, head of the provincial council, announced.

The attack starkly highlighted the difficulty of the long struggle by the Afghan government and its international backers to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

After arriving in Mazar-i-Sharif to visit the base, Ghani ordered flags be flown at half mast on Sunday in memory of the troops who died.

Ghani held an emergency meeting with senior security officials and called for a "serious" investigation into the attack.

In a statement online, he condemned the assault as "cowardly" and the work of "infidels".

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, made their way onto the base and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials.

They opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and several detonated suicide vests packed with explosives.

Witnesses described a scene of confusion as soldiers were uncertain about the attackers' true identity.

"It was a chaotic scene and I didn't know what to do," said one army officer wounded in the attack. "There was gunfire and explosions everywhere."

The base is the headquarters of the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz, a province that has seen heavy fighting.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Kabul, said the base was supposedly "the most heavily defended camp in all of northern Afghanistan".

"The attackers managed to get through three different checkpoints, and they seem to have also had passes for their vehicle and personal identity cards ... which raises all sorts of concerns."

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 US military command in Kabul said an American air strike had killed a commander, Quari Tayib, and eight other Taliban on April 17.

Mujahid said the attack on the base killed as many as 500 soldiers, including senior commanders.

Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathisers who had infiltrated the army and served for some time, Mujahid said.

The Afghan army did not respond to his comments.

The NATO-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base to train and assist Afghan forces, but coalition officials said no foreign troops had been hurt.

"The attack on the 209th Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban," the commander of coalition forces, US General John Nicholson, said in a statement on Friday.

German forces have long led the international mission in northern Afghanistan.

In Berlin, military officials said the work of the mission on the base would be on hold for one or two days while the Afghan army investigated the attack, but it would resume.

"The situation shows that we cannot stop supporting, training and advising our Afghan partners," a German Operations Command spokesman said.</s>MAZAR-I-SHARIF/KABUL: As many as 140 Afghan soldiers were killed on Friday by Taliban attackers apparently disguised in military uniforms in what would be the deadliest attack ever on an Afghan military base, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said the toll was "over 100" Afghan soldiers killed and wounded.

One official in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the attack occurred, said on Saturday at least 140 soldiers were killed and many others wounded. Other officials said the toll was likely to be even higher.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government has yet to release exact casualty figures.

The attack starkly highlighted the struggle by the Afghan government and its international backers to defeat a potent Taliban insurgency that has gripped Afghanistan for more than a decade.

A US official in Washington on Friday had put the toll at more than 50 killed and wounded.

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, made their way onto the base and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating a meal and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials. The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and several detonated suicide vests packed with explosive, they said.

Witnesses described a scene of confusion as soldiers were uncertain who the attackers were.

"It was a chaotic scene and I didn't know what to do," said one army officer wounded in the attack. "There was gunfire and explosions everywhere."

The base is the headquarters for the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz province where there has been heavy fighting.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Saturday the attack was retribution for the recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan.

Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathisers who had infiltrated the army and served for some time, Mujahid said. That claim has not been confirmed by the Afghan army.

The NATO-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base where the attack occurred to train and assist the Afghan forces but coalition officials said no international troops were involved in the attack.

"The attack on the 209th Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban," the commander of coalition forces, US General John Nicholson, said in a statement on Friday.</s>By Sayed Salahuddin and Pamela Constable, (c) 2017, The Washington Post

KABUL, Afghanistan — The nerve center of Afghan and NATO combat activities in northern Afghanistan is a sprawling military base in Balkh province. There, thousands of Afghan National Army troops live and train, regional deployments and attacks are planned, and U.S.-supplied helicopters and fighter planes are launched to support Afghan troops battling the Taliban.

On Friday, in a stunning blow to the Western-backed war effort, the base on a sun-baked plain near the city of Mazar-e Sharif became the target of the deadliest single attack by Taliban insurgents since their regime in Kabul was overthrown in 2001. A spokesman for the Islamist militia claimed responsibility for the assault.

There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties, but some Afghan officials said Saturday that at least 140 people had been killed and 60 injured when a handful of Taliban fighters, disguised as Afghan military personnel, entered the base in army vehicles and opened fire. A Defense Ministry spokesman said that only 100 were confirmed dead, however.

Witnesses and survivors said the assailants sprayed gunfire among mostly unarmed Afghan soldiers and officers, many of whom were either just leaving weekly prayers at the base’s mosque or eating in its canteen.

There were no reports of NATO service members being killed on the base, where a group of German military advisers has been stationed to train and advise Afghan forces.

Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, praised Afghan commandos for bringing an “atrocity to an end.” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flew to the area Saturday to console victims’ families.

The attack lasted for nearly six hours, with the insurgents firing guns, throwing grenades and detonating suicide bombs, officials and witnesses said. A Taliban statement said four of the attackers were army defectors who had served at the base, and it called the rampage a “prelude” to the militants’ traditional spring offensive.

But the Taliban has hardly let up its campaign this past winter, instead repeatedly attacking strategic cities and towns in scattered regions, and gradually gaining influence or control over greater portions of the country.

One of the insurgents’ major targets has been Kunduz city in the north, which borders the country of Tajikistan. Afghan troops and war pilots have been repeatedly deployed there from the assaulted base.

The attack came less than a week after forces loyal to the area’s powerful regional governor reportedly drove Taliban fighters from much of the province, long considered one of the most secure in Afghanistan. It also came five months after a suicide bomber managed to enter the main U.S. military base at Bagram, near Kabul, killing four people.

The insurgents reportedly managed to get past two security gates by pretending to bring wounded soldiers for medical treatment, a tactic also used last month by Islamic State attackers who invaded a military hospital in Kabul and slaughtered scores of people inside.

In Friday’s attack, officials said, two of the assailants blew themselves up and seven were killed.

The full extent of the carnage was not known until Saturday, after authorities finished searching the base for survivors. All day, the reported toll of dead and wounded kept rising. A provincial political leader, reached by phone, said that at one point during the battle, the base had run out of coffins.

Ghani, during his visit to the area, described the attackers as “infidels,” because they had fired on soldiers praying inside the mosque. Taliban officials denied the charge, but photos circulating on social media showed a bullet-riddled pulpit.

“When I came out of the mosque, three people with army uniforms and an army vehicle started shooting at us,” an injured soldier named Mohammed Hussain told an Afghan news outlet. He said one of them had set a machine gun in the window and “shot everyone in his way.”

Relatives of some dead soldiers, waiting outside the base to receive the coffins, complained of poor security measures on the base and speculated that the attackers must have had inside help.

The Afghan defense forces, largely responsible for waging the war after the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014, have suffered from desertions, corruption and defections to the other side.

There are currently about 8,400 U.S. troops and another 5,000 NATO forces in the country, and Nicholson and other U.S. military officials have said several thousand more are needed to continue training and supporting Afghan forces.</s>Death toll in Afghan base attack rises to 140, officials say

Afghan national Army troops arrive near the site of an ongoing attack on an army headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif northern Afghanistan April 21, 2017. — Reuters picMAZAR-I-SHARIF, April 22 — As many 140 Afghan soldiers were killed yesterday by Taliban attackers apparently disguised in military uniforms in what would be the deadliest attack ever on an Afghan military base, officials said.

One official in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the attack occurred, said today at least 140 soldiers were killed and many others wounded. Other officials said the toll was likely to be even higher.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government has yet to release official casualty figures.

A US official in Washington yesterday had put the toll at more than 50 killed and wounded.

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, talked their way onto the base and opened fire on soldiers eating dinner and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials. The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, they said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement today the attack was retribution for the recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan.

The Nato-led military coalition deploys advisers to the base where the attack occurred to train and assist the Afghan forces but coalition officials said no international troops were involved in the attack.

The Western-backed Afghan government is locked in a prolonged war with Taliban insurgents and other militant groups. — Reuters
Taliban insurgents attack an Afghan military base in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh Province, killing more than 140 soldiers. It is said to be the deadliest attack of its kind (BBC) , (AP) (Reuters)