KABUL — The death toll from a Taliban raid on a key army base has exceeded 160, an official said Saturday, the bloodiest single incident in an attack by the resurgent militants since their ouster in 2001.
The attack Friday was seen as another major blow for President Ashraf Ghani’s shaky U.S.-backed government, which, apart from facing rising violence by militants, is also locked in a growing internal power struggle.
The major military base for the northern region in Afghanistan’s mostly secure Balkh province was targeted Friday. A group of 10 Taliban fighters in military uniforms drove in two army vehicles and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers and officers inside the sprawling base.
After the nearly six hours of reportedly indiscriminate gunfire and blasts caused by hand grenades as well as suicide bombers, officials Friday said that dozens of soldiers were killed either after leaving Friday prayers at the base’s mosque or at the dining facility.
The level of carnage became clearer Saturday after authorities finished the room-to room search for survivors and cleared the mess caused by the brazen attack, a lawmaker for Balkh said on the condition of anonymity.
“The figure I have heard for the deaths is 163,” the lawmaker said. “It could go higher as some of the dozens of wounded are in critical condition. For a while, there was shortage for coffins, but somehow they managed to sort that out”
The Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, said 100 people had been killed.
Ghani, who rushed Saturday to Balkh to console victims’ families, described the attackers as “infidels” because officials said the insurgents opened fire on soldiers while they were praying inside the mosque.
The attack drew stern condemnation from the U.S. military, which leads the war against militants, including the Taliban, more than 16 years after ousting the radical Islamic government.
The Taliban denied killing soldiers inside the mosque. Images on social media showed a bullet-riddled pulpit.
The militants managed to get past two security gates of the base pretending to have brought wounded soldiers for medical treatment, local officials said. They were challenged at the third gate after refusing to hand over their assault rifles and other weapons. Then, they blew up one vehicle to allow their comrades to get inside.
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