JALALABAD – A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an army uniform killed five foreign troops and four Afghan soldiers on Saturday in a brazen attack at the Afghan army’s eastern headquarters. It was the deadliest single incident this year against foreign forces in war-torn Afghanistan and comes amid a wave of suicide attacks on security targets, three months before foreign forces start a limited pullback.
The latest strike was at an army base in the Gambiri desert area in Laghman province, near Jalalabad city, the de facto capital of Afghanistan’s east. “Five International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan today,” ISAF said in a statement. ISAF spokesman Major Tim James confirmed that the deaths came in the attack on the Afghan army base, but could not comment on the nationalities of those killed, in line with policy.
There were over 100 ISAF troops at the base, primarily tasked with mentoring the Afghan army, James said. Afghanistan’s defence ministry said that four Afghan army personnel were killed and eight people were wounded, including four translators. Spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi added that the ministry was investigating the possibility that the attacker was a member of the Afghan army, rather than someone who simply bought a uniform for the attack.
“We cannot totally rule out the possibility right away. It takes time to do some investigations,” Azimi said. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP and said the attacker had joined the Afghan army a month ago. The Taliban frequently exaggerate their public statements in relation to attacks.
The blast came a day after the provincial police chief of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, Khan Mohammad Mujahid, was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Taliban in which his two bodyguards also died. Saturday’s bombing is thought to be the most deadly single attack against foreign forces since December, when six US troops were killed in a blast at an outpost in Kandahar province.
