Attack on Afghan army base with car bomb kills at least 30

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Attack on Afghan army base with car bomb kills at least 30
By: Sharif Hassan & Susannah George - The Washington Post - 11-29-20
Re: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...paign=wp_world

KABUL — A Humvee laden with explosives backed by gunmen struck an Afghan army base in central Afghanistan Sunday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 16, according to local officials. Local media is reporting that most of the casualties were members of the security forces.

The bombing is one of the single deadliest attacks to strike Afghanistan in recent months, where violence has been on the rise nationwide despite ongoing peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government in Doha.

Hamidullah Nawroz, a provincial council member from Ghazni, said the explosive-packed Humvee was accompanied by several gunmen on foot. The gunmen shot dead the guards to the security compound, clearing a way for the Humvee to enter before it detonated.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but some local officials were already blaming the Taliban, citing the group's history of carrying out attacks like the one in Ghazni Sunday. Since the signing of the February deal between the United States and the Taliban, there has been a near-cessation of large Taliban-claimed attacks in urban parts of the country.

What has been on the rise, however, have been clashes between Taliban fighters and government forces in rural areas. Both sides accuse the other of trying to expand the territory under their control.

Ghazni, seated along a key highway that connects the Afghan capital to the country's south, is one of the least stable provinces in Afghanistan, with roughly two-thirds of its districts controlled or contested by Taliban fighters.

The United States has closed at least 10 bases around Afghanistan. But drawdown details remain murky.

The Taliban is on the offensive. Keeping the militants at bay: U.S. airstrikes, even as bases close and troops leave.

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About the writer: Susannah George: Susannah George is The Washington Post's Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief. She previously headed the Associated Press’s Baghdad bureau and covered national security and intelligence from the AP’s Washington bureau.