KABUL: A huge blast from a Taleban suicide truck bomb attack on a joint NATO-Afghan Army base in eastern Afghanistan yesterday injured several international and Afghan troops, officials said.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that some of its troops were wounded along with Afghan soldiers, but would not disclose how many.
Reports by Afghan officials of the number of Afghan soldiers wounded in the attack — claimed by Taleban insurgents — varied from 11 to 45, with the lower figure confirmed by the defense ministry. There were no reports of any deaths.
The attack came as Afghan forces take on an increasing role in the war against the Taleban with NATO drawing down its forces ahead of a pull-out of all combat troops at the end of 2014.
So far this year the Afghan army and police have suffered an average of 535 casualties — killed and wounded — each month, ISAF says.
In contrast, a total of 358 ISAF troops have been killed this year. ISAF does not usually release the number of its troops wounded in operations.
“This morning a joint ISAF-ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) combat outpost in Zurmat district in Paktiya province was attacked by insurgents using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device and indirect fire,” an ISAF spokesman told AFP.
The Taleban said their fighters had infiltrated the base after the suicide attack. ISAF refused to confirm this, saying only that the base was now secure.
Suicide bomb rocks Afghan Army base
