120 killed at Maiwand base in fresh Taliban attack

Kandahar: Militants launched two separate attacks on Afghan security installations killing dozens of soldiers on Thursday, the latest in a series of devastating assaults this week that have left more than 120 people dead and underscored spiralling insecurity. At least 43 Afghan soldiers were killed and nine wounded in a Taliban-claimed assault on a military base in southern Afghanistan which saw the insurgents blast their way into the compound with at least one explosives-laden Humvee — a tactic used in three separate attacks this week — the defence ministry said.

A security source in Kandahar put the toll at 50 dead and 20 wounded. But the real figure is likely to be higher because Afghan officials habitually understate the actual number of casualties. The militants razed the base in the Chashmo area of Maiwand district in Kandahar province to the ground, according to the ministry.
“Unfortunately there is nothing left inside the camp. They have burned down everything they found inside,” defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.
Just two soldiers were known to have survived unscathed, with six unaccounted for, the ministry said, underscoring the shocking casualties that Afghan security forces have faced in their struggle to beat back the insurgents. More than 10 militants were killed, it added.

US aircraft carried out an airstrike during a counter-terror operation in Maiwand on Thursday, a spokesman for US Forces in Kabul said, though he did not specify whether the target was insurgents at the base.