140 Afghan soldiers killed in Taliban attack on military base

Asmany as 140 Afghan soldiers were killed on Friday by Talibanattackers apparently disguised in military uniforms in whatwould be the deadliest attack ever on an Afghan military base,officials said.

The defence ministry said the toll was "over 100" Afghansoldiers killed and wounded.

One official in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, wherethe attack occurred, said on Saturday at least 140 soldiers werekilled and many others wounded. Other officials said the tollwas likely to be even higher.

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

The attack starkly highlighted the struggle by the Afghangovernment and its international backers to defeat a potentTaliban insurgency that has gripped Afghanistan for more than adecade.

A U.S. official in Washington on Friday had put the toll atmore than 50 killed and wounded.

As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan armyuniforms and driving military vehicles, made their way onto thebase and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating a mealand leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according toofficials.

The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and somedetonated suicide vests packed with explosive, theysaid.

"Two suicide bombers detonated their vests full of explosive inside the mosque of the army corps while everyone was busy with Friday prayers," said Gen. Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the defence ministry.

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

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

The base is the headquarters for the Afghan National Army's209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan,including Kunduz province where there has been heavy fighting.

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

• U.S. drops 'mother of all bombs' in Afghanistan, aiming for ISIS caves

Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathizers who hadinfiltrated 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 basewhere the attack occurred to train and assist the Afghan forcesbut coalition officials said no international troops wereinvolved in the attack.

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