120 dead as Taliban launches fresh attack at Maiwand base in Afghanistan

Dozens of soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by militants on Afghan security installations on Thursday. In a series of devastating attacks this week, the latest development took lives of 120 people.

At least 43  Afghan soldiers were killed and nine wounded after the Taliban carried out two suicide car bombings at an army camp in the southern Kandahar province, the Afghan officials said.

According to the ministry, the militants razed the base in the Chashmo area of Maiwand district in Kandahar province to the ground.

“Unfortunately there is nothing left inside the camp. They have burned down everything they found inside”, defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.

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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.

(With PTI inputs)