Afghan official: Gunmen attacked army base, 100 casualties

Gunmen wearing army uniforms stormed a military compound in the Balkh province, killing or wounding more than 100 army personnel, an Afghan official said Saturday. (Photo by Julian-G. Albert – Mazar-e Sharif with the new university, CC BY 2.0,)

KABUL — Gunmen wearing army uniforms stormed a military compound in the Balkh province, killing or wounding more than 100 army personnel, an Afghan official said Saturday.

Daulat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghanistan Ministry of Defence, said the attack a day earlier on a compound of the 209th Corps of the Afghan National Army left dozens of soldiers and other personnel dead or wounded.

Gunmen entered the compound with a military vehicle and began shooting at soldiers as they prayed in a mosque, he said.

Waziri said there were 10 attackers. Two carried out suicide attacks and eight other attackers were killed in the battle.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to media.

The 209th corps is located in the Dihdadi district of Balkh and is the largest army base and one of seven corps of the country’s Ministry of Defence, which has responsible for providing security for Afghanistan’s northern and northeastern provinces.