They came dressed in Afghan Army clothing and bearing the bodies of other soldiers. The wounded soldiers purportedly injured on the front line, were a part of a major ruse that caught an entire Afghan military base off guard.
Taliban militants passed seven checkpoints
Ten Taliban militants riding in a couple of Ford Ranger trucks that belong to the army managed to pass seven checkpoints. And after arriving at the largest Afghan Military Base in the northern part of the country, they opened fire on scores of unarmed soldiers. As the largest military base in the country, it housed hundreds or perhaps even thousands of military personnel.
The soldiers were getting ready to eat lunch after returning from Friday prayers. For five long hours, the Taliban went on a brutal rampage in which approximately 140 soldiers and other military officials were killed. Since the 16-year-old war started between the government and the Taliban group, this event marks the worst attack on any Afghan military base.
Shortage of coffins to bury dead Afghan soldiers
The horrendous rampage was brutal, according to eyewitnesses and some of the survivors. They stated that some of the assailants detonated bombs and blew themselves up, along with scores of soldiers who were trying to escape the devastating attack. According to Ibrahim Khairandish, who is a member of the Balkh provincial council, there was a shortage of coffins to bury the dead.
And while the Death Toll currently stands at 140, officials are warning that it could climb to well over 200 soldiers. Just last year it was reported that over 6,700 Afghan soldiers lost their lives, which is three times the amount of American soldiers killed each year in the war zone.
Recently, John W. Nicholson, the commander of NATO's Afghanistan coalition forces, sent out a request to have a thousand United States soldiers dispatched to Afghanistan to help train new Afghan recruits.
Rahmatullah Nabil, a former leader of the Afghan Intelligence Service said there was a high level of mistrust and corruption between commanders and soldiers. This, he said, had given the enemy strength and made the armed forces vulnerable to the Taliban.
