KABUL: More than 100 Afghan soldiers were killed and wounded in a coordinated Taliban attack on an army base in northern Afghanistan, the country’s defense ministry said Saturday.
It is the latest in a string of deadly assaults against an Afghan military sites, which underscores rising insecurity in the war-torn country as it braces for an intense fighting season in the spring.
“The majority of our soldiers were offering Friday prayers” at the time of the assault, the ministry said in a statement, adding that “over 100 Afghan army forces were martyred and wounded.”
Two of the attackers blew themselves up and seven were killed in the assault near Mazar-i-Sharif city on Friday which lasted several hours and targeted soldiers at a mosque and dining facility.
The government toll of the attack came as a military official who was at the base at the time of the assault told AFP that “150 soldiers were killed and dozens wounded.”
“They were young recruits who had come for training,” he said on condition of anonymity.
A US military spokesman said earlier that “more than 50” Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack claimed by the Taliban, while Afghan officials had initially put the death toll at eight with 11 wounded.
General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, praised Afghan commandos for bringing the “atrocity to an end.”
Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and non-existent “ghost soldiers” on the payroll, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.
According to US watchdog SIGAR, casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed.
Nicholson in February told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that he needed “a few thousand” more troops to help train and assist the Afghan forces.
The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies assisting a much larger Afghan force in the war against the Taliban and other Islamist militants.
The facility in Balkh province is home to the Afghan army’s 209th Corps.
The last major attack against a military site was in early March when gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital — the country’s largest military hospital — in Kabul, killing dozens.
Afghanistan confirms more than 100 soldiers killed and wounded in Taliban attack
Afghanistan confirms more than 100 soldiers killed and wounded in Taliban attack
Ukraine, Russia exchange POWs for first time in months
- The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps
- “Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen,” Zelensky said
KYIV: Ukraine and Russia have conducted their first prisoner exchange in months, each releasing at least 157 people, both countries said Thursday, amid US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war.
The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps, one of the rare areas of direct cooperation between Ukraine and Russia amid the four-year war, but last month Kyiv accused Moscow of halting the exchanges.
On Thursday, amid three-way talks in Abu Dhabi, the countries swapped 157 captured soldiers and civilians each in an exchange mediated by Washington — the first since October.
“Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen. I thank everyone who works to make these exchanges possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Images he posted showed the released prisoners, their heads freshly shaven, wrapped in Ukrainian flags and smiling amid falling snow.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said among the 157 Ukrainians released “are seven civilians and those whom the Russians unlawfully convicted.”
Zelensky’s aide Kyrylo Budanov said that in the group of the freed prisoners were 19 Ukrainians “who were illegally sentenced, 15 of them to life imprisonment.”
Russia, who said the United States and United Arab Emirates acted as mediators for the exchange, announced earlier it had handed over 157 Ukrainian soldiers and that 157 Russian servicemen were returned.
“In addition, three Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region... will be returned home,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in 2024.
