Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber attacked an Afghan intelligence training facility in the Wardak province Monday, killing dozens of people, security officials said.

The bomber used a Humvee to ram into the compound run by the country's national intelligence agency, causing an explosion, The Washington Post reported. After the explosion, gunmen entered the compound, where they were killed by security forces.

A senior official with Afghan's National Directorate of Security told The Guardian at least 50 people died or sustained injuries. Another official from the Afghan public health ministry said the total people killed and injured could be about 140 people.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which followed another incident Sunday in which a suicide bomber used the same tactics to disrupt a government convoy in Logar. The provincial governor survived the attack, but eight of his bodyguards died.

Taliban attacks have increased while leaders participate in peace talks supported by the United States. Some Afghan officials said the attacks are a tactic to get leverage in the discussions aimed at ending the 17-year war.

Hussein Ali Baligh, a member of the local provincial council, expressed concern over how an explosives-laden Humvee can pass enough checkpoints to reach the guarded facility. He said the vehicle appeared to have once belonged to the Afghan government.

"It shows the weakness of our forces," Ali Baligh said. "Our forces are brave, but their commanders have weaknesses." </s> KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban killed more than 100 members of the Afghan security forces inside a military compound in central Maidan Wardak province on Monday, a senior defense official said.

“We have information that 126 people have been killed in the explosion inside the military training center, eight special commandoes are among the dead,” said a senior official in the defense ministry in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said the assault began on Monday morning when the attackers rammed a car full explosives through a military check point and detonated the vehicle inside the campus of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces training center in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Maidan Wardak province.

Two gunmen entered the campus right after the explosion and shot at many Afghan soldiers before being gunned down during the clashes.

Defense ministry officials said the Taliban had used U.S.-made armored Humvee vehicles captured from Afghan forces as a car bomb in order to breach the military fortifications.

A second source residing in Maidan Wardak province said more than 100 members of National Directorate of Security (NDS) were killed in the complex attack.

“I have been in touch with the NDS official in the province and they told me that over 100 members of the NDS were killed in the big explosion,” the former provincial official said.

Sharif Hotak, a member of the provincial council in Maidan Wardak said he saw bodies of 35 Afghan forces in the hospital.

“Many more were killed. Several bodies were transported to Kabul city and many injured were transferred to hospitals in Kabul,” said Hotak, adding that “the government was hiding the accurate casualty figures to prevent a further dip in morale of the Afghan forces.”

“The explosion was very powerful. The whole building has collapsed,” he said.

Government officials in Maidan Wardak and Kabul declined to comment when asked if they were obscuring the death toll.

Two senior officials in the interior ministry said the exact casualty figures was not being disclosed to prevent unrest within the armed forces.

“I have been told not to make the death toll figures public. It is frustrating to hide the facts,” said a senior interior ministry official in Kabul.

A senior NDS official in Kabul said at least 50 people were killed or wounded in the complex attack.

Abdurrahman Mangal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Maidan Wardak said 12 people were killed and 12 were injured when the car bomb exploded near the Afghan special forces unit.

President Ashraf Ghani’s office in a statement said the “enemies of the country” had carried out an attack against NDS personnel in Maidan Shahr. “They killed and wounded a number of our beloved and honest sons.”

In recent years the Afghan government has stopped releasing detailed casualty figures. Last year Ghani has said 28,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed since 2015, breaking the longstanding suppression on casualty data.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the hardline Islamic militant group said they have killed 190 people in the complex attack.

Last week, Taliban fighters set off a car bomb outside a highly fortified compound killing at least five people and wounding more than 110 Afghans and expatriates in the capital, Kabul. </s> The Taliban have launched a major attack on an Afghan military compound in central Maidan Wardak province, officials have said, with some putting the death toll at more than 100 people.

Monday’s incident at a campus of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) is the latest in a series of deadly attacks in recent months by the Taliban, which has seized control of about half of Afghanistan.

The Afghan authorities said the attack started on Monday morning, when a US-made armoured Humvee vehicle was driven into the compound and blown up. Gunmen also opened fire, before being killed by security forces.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have given differing estimates of the death toll. One said it could be as high as 126 people and another said yet more were thought to have been wounded. “Eight special commandos are among the dead,” said a senior member of Kabul’s defence ministry. An official from the Afghan public health ministry said the total of killed and wounded could be about 140 people.

However, others offered a more conservative estimate. A senior NDS official in Kabul said at least 50 people were killed or wounded. Abdurrahman Mangal, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Maidan Wardak, said 12 people were killed and 12 were injured when the car bomb exploded near the Afghan special forces unit.

US army chief says death toll of Afghan security forces is unsustainable Read more

Defence ministry officials said the Taliban had used the Humvee, which had been captured from Afghan forces, as a bomb in order to breach the military fortifications.

Hussein Ali Baligh, a member of the local provincial council, said: “This morning, around 7am, a Humvee entered the NDS block in the city … about 150 NDS personnel were present at the time of the attack. The Humvee exploded right after entering the compound. The building has totally been collapsed.” At least two gunmen followed up the attack before being killed themselves.

He said the attack sparked concerns in the province over how a Humvee that had been in the hands of government forces could pass through checkpoints while packed with explosives. “It shows the weakness of our forces,” he said. “Our forces are brave, but their commanders have weaknesses.”

Sharif Hotak, a member of the provincial council in Maidan Wardak, said he had seen the bodies of 35 Afghan forces personnel in hospital. “Many more were killed. Several bodies were transported to Kabul city and many injured were transferred to hospitals in Kabul,” said Hotak, adding that “the government was hiding the accurate casualty figures to prevent a further dip in morale of the Afghan forces”.

Government officials in Maidan Wardak and Kabul declined to comment when asked if they were obscuring the death toll.

Two senior officials in the interior ministry said the exact casualty figure was not being disclosed to prevent unrest within the armed forces. “I have been told not to make the death toll figures public. It is frustrating to hide the facts,” said a senior interior ministry official in Kabul.

The office of the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, said the “enemies of the country” had carried out an attack against NDS personnel in Maidan Shahr, the provincial capital. “They killed and wounded a number of our beloved and honest sons,” he said.

He added: “Terrorist groups and their foreign supporters cannot weaken the high morale of our brave security and defence forces, because they have a great will to repress terrorists.” Ghani ordered the officials to investigate this attack.

In recent years, the Afghan government has stopped releasing detailed casualty figures. Last year, Ghani said 28,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers had been killed since 2015, breaking the longstanding suppression of casualty data.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamist militant group, claimed it had killed 190 people.

Last week, Taliban fighters set off a car bomb outside a highly fortified compound in Kabul, killing at least five people and wounding more than 110 Afghans and expats.

Some analysts have suggested the recent increase in the intensity of Taliban attacks is a ploy by the group to gain the upper hand in ongoing talks with the US Afghan envoy. </s> KABUL - A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said.

A NATO Resolute Support mission service member, an American, and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the mission said.

The attack is being investigated.

Officials said the blast happened in the Khalazai area of Charikar, capital of Parwan province.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the suicide bomber targeted foreign forces who were on a routine patrol.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy exploded early Friday in an eastern Kabul neighborhood, leaving four Afghan civilians dead and three wounded and lightly wounding four American forces, authorities said. It was the second suicide attack in as many days to rattle the Afghan capital.

The suicide bomber struck as the convoy passed through Kabul's eastern Yakatot neighborhood, where U.S. and NATO forces maintain complexes. Facilities operated by the Afghan National Security Forces located nearby.

Bob Purtiman, public affairs officer with the U.S. military in Kabul, said four U.S. service members received minor injuries. The one-line statement did not elaborate.

In a telephone interview, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid took responsibility for Friday's attack on the U.S. convoy in Kabul, claiming 10 U.S. soldiers were killed. Taliban claims are often exaggerated.

Witnesses said the explosion was powerful, blowing out windows in neighboring buildings. Traffic on the streets was light because the bombing occurred on a Friday, the weekly day off.

On Thursday, six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an Afghan army academy and training center, also in the same area but several kilometers (miles) away from Friday's explosion.

The Interior Ministry on Thursday said a soldier had noticed a suspicious person, and as he approached him the attacker detonated his explosives near the academy. The soldier's action likely saved lives.

Both the Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate have infiltrated the capital in the past.

In a series of coordinated attacks by Taliban fighters late Thursday in Charchino district in southern Uruzgan province, 11 soldiers and five police were killed, said Mohammad Karim Karimi, deputy provincial council chief. Karimi said he had repeatedly requested the government in Kabul to send additional security forces to the district, which has a strong Taliban presence.

Attacks by the Taliban have continued unabated despite peace talks with the United States as well as a fresh round of talks with Afghan notables this week in the Russian capital Moscow. Following the Moscow talks, Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Doha, said "spectacular progress" was made on some issues, without elaborating.

The Taliban have rejected repeated demands for a cease fire, saying the fighting will continue until U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan. They also continue to refuse to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, calling them U.S. puppets, yet several senior government personalities, including members of a Kabul peace council attended the Moscow meeting. The Taliban have said they will meet with members of the government, but as ordinary Afghans, rather than as government representatives. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - More than 100 members of Afghan security forces were killed when Taliban insurgents attacked a military compound in the central Maidan Wardak province on Monday, a senior defence ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We have information that 126 people have been killed in the explosion inside the military training center,” the official said.

A provincial official also said the death toll was over 100.

A government spokesman declined to comment. Earlier the government said 12 people had been killed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local):

The Pentagon says that two U.S. service members were killed in an attack on a NATO convoy near Kandarhar in southern Afghanistan.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the deaths. There was no information on the number of troops wounded.

A suicide bomber struck the convoy and the Taliban took responsibility for the attack.

Eyewitness Ghulam Ali, who runs a mechanics shop near the attack site on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar, says he saw a military vehicle on fire on the road. He says helicopters arrived and he saw soldiers being taken away from the scene but could not determine the extent of their injuries.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has refused to provide any information on potential casualties.

Thousands of angry residents carried the bodies of 31 people who died in a horrific suicide attack on a Shiite Mosque in western Herat. Meanwhile, the Islamic State group on its affiliated Amaq news agency, took responsibility, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The provincial governor’s spokesman Jilani Farhad said the death toll had climbed to 32 and another 66 worshippers were wounded when a suicide attacker stormed evening prayers at the Jawadia mosque in Herat on Tuesday evening.

He sprayed bullets at private security guards outside of the mosque before entering and firing into the crowd and then detonating his explosives.

There was a second explosion 10 minutes later but it is still not clear where that took place, with some witnesses saying a grenade was thrown into the mosque.

The bodies were brought near the provincial governor’s residence in a large freezer truck. Protesters demanded the people behind the brutal assault be arrested.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack earlier in the day on a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan.

Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan, claimed two armored tanks were destroyed and that 15 foreign soldiers were killed in Wednesday’s attack on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar. The insurgents, however, routinely exaggerate their gains and death tolls.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Damien E. Horvath had earlier confirmed the attack and said that there were casualties, but he could not say how many or provide their nationalities

Ahmadi identified the suicide attacker as Taliban fighter Asadullah Kandahari from southern Kandahar, saying he was a “hero” who carried out the attack with a small pick-up truck, packed with explosives.

Kandahar province was the Taliban spiritual and leadership headquarters during their five-year rule that ended in with the U.S. invasion in 2001.

An Afghan police official in Kandahar says a suicide bomber has hit a convoy of international troops on the edge of the southern city. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Kandahar police spokesman Zia Durrani said he could only confirm the attack, which took place on Wednesday, but had no more details.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Damien E. Horvath told The Associated Press in Kabul only that they were trying to collect information but so far had no word on whether there were casualties.

The combined U.S. and NATO troop contingent currently in Afghanistan is about 13,500. The Trump administration is deciding whether to send about 4,000 or more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem Taliban gains.

Afghan authorities have tightened security ahead of a mass funeral for the victims of last night’s suicide attack at a Shiite mosque that killed 29 people.

A suicide attacker opened fire inside a mosque packed with worshippers at evening prayers, before detonating his explosives. A second explosion came 10 minutes later.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing in western Herat province but it came a day after the Islamic State group warned it would attack Shiites.

Provincial spokesman Jilani Farhad says that to reduce the chance for more attacks, a planned Shiite protest to denounce the attack will be held just before the burial on Wednesday afternoon, rather than at a separate time and location.

Along with the 29 killed, 64 people were wounded, 10 of them critically. </s> A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, and Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

A NATO Resolute Support mission service member, an American, and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the mission said in a statement.

"Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history and further strengthen our resolve," said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, in the statement.

Local officials said the blast happened in the Khalazai area of Charikar, capital of Parwan province.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the suicide bomber targeted foreign forces who were on a routine foot patrol.

Eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. Special Forces units have regularly been deployed against militants, continues to be one of the deadliest areas for the U.S. military since its main combat operation against the Taliban ended in 2014.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility.

"We have killed eight U.S. invaders in a tactic bombing," Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in statement.

"The invaders had to bring three helicopter ambulances to protect their forces," he said. </s> Kabul: A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a convoy of foreign forces in Afghanistan late Thursday, killing one NATO soldier and wounding six other personnel, the coalition said.

"The patrol was conducting a partnered mission with the Afghan National Army when a personnel-borne IED (improvised explosive device) detonated," in Qarabagh district in Kabul province," NATO said in a statement.

The Taliban quickly claimed the attack on social media and in Whatsapp messages to journalists.

Qarabagh district is located 50 kilometres north of the capital Kabul and is near Bagram Airbase, the largest American base in Afghanistan.

"One Resolute Support Soldier was killed and six personnel (five troops and one interpreter) were wounded Thursday evening when their patrol was attacked by a suicide bomber," Nato said referring to the name of its Afghan mission.

"The RS personnel who were wounded are being treated at the US military hospital at Bagram Airfield. All of the wounded are listed in stable condition," it added.

The nationality of the dead soldier and injured was not immediately known.

Civilians were also reported to have been wounded in the night-time attack.

"#Afghanistan explosion in Qarabagh district, 12 wounded brought to our #Kabul hospital so far," tweeted an Italian-run hospital in the capital which specialises in dealing with victims of bombings.

The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber killed two US soldiers in Afghanistan`s restive southern province of Kandahar when he rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into a convoy of foreign forces.
A U.S. soldier is also killed in a separate bombing in Wardak Province.