KABUL: A powerful suicide car bombing targeted an Afghan army compound in the country’s north on Thursday morning, killing six Afghan soldiers, the defence ministry said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Shortly after the bomber detonated his car laden with explosives outside the small military base in Balkh province, a group of insurgents stormed into the compound, setting off a shootout with Afghan forces.

The defence ministry said in a statement that three Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the explosion and the ensuing terrorist attack. The provincial governor’s spokesman, Munir Farhad, said fighting inside the compound continued for hours before the attackers were repelled.

The Taliban, however, claimed they inflicted a far greater number of casualties and also that they captured the base and seized huge quantities of weapons and ammunition, according to a tweet by their spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. The militants routinely exaggerate their claims.

Afghan ministry of defence rejected the Taliban claim, saying the insurgents had not taken the base.

Taliban free peace activists

The Taliban released 27 peace activists on Thursday, a day after they were abducted in an ambush on their convoy in western Afghanistan, a leader of the activist organisation said.

Phone lines were down in the region, making communication difficult and the reason for the activists’ abduction was still unclear, said Bismillah Watandost of the People’s Peace Movement of Afghanistan.

The insurgents ambushed the group in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province. Insurgents forced the six-vehicle convoy to a halt, then got into the cars and drove them and the activists to an unknown location.

A provincial police operation was launched to locate and free the activists, whose convoy was going village to village to rally for peace in the war-torn country.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2019