Taliban target Afghan military base in new insurgent attack

A Taliban attack has killed at least 12 people after an attack on a security centre.

2 min read

21 January, 2019

The Taliban have launched almost daily attacks on Afghan forces [Getty]

A Taliban attack on a military base and police training centre in eastern Afghanistan on Monday killed at least 12 people and wounded over 30 people, provincial officials have said.

Some of the wounded were taken to provincial hospitals for treatment while the more serious cases were sent to the capital, Kabul.

A suicide car bomber struck the base first, with militants opening fire at the Afghan forces, Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the interior minister, said.

At least two Taliban fighters were killed during the attempted raid in Maidan Wardak province.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to the media.

Salem Asgherkhail, head of the area's public health department, said that most of those killed in the attack military personnel.

The Taliban have launched daily attacks on security forces in Afghanistan and are said to control almost half of Afghanistan.

It comes as the US attempts to negotiate an end to the country's 17-year war.

President Donald Trump wants a major scale-back of Washington's involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops operate as part of a NATO peacekeeping operation.

The war in Afghanistan is Washington's longest overseas military intervention and has cost the country close to a trillion dollars.

Trump wants to withdraw American troops from the country and establish a peace deal with the Taliban in time for Afghanistan's presidential and parliamentary elections, due early to mid-2019.

The elections have been viewed as a litmus test for the future security of the country.