Taliban kill ´more than 50´ Afghan troops in army base attack

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan: Taliban gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms launched an attack on an army base in northern Afghanistan Friday killing "more than 50 soldiers", officials said.

Afghan commandos were deployed during the attack which lasted several hours and targeted soldiers as they attended mosque and ate a meal.

Two of the ten attackers blew themselves up while seven were killed and one was detained.

"More than 50 Afghan soldiers have been killed" in a Taliban attack on their base near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a US military spokesman told AFP.

US General John Nicholson, commander of NATO´s Resolute Support operation, said in a separate statement that the attack targeted "soldiers at prayer in a mosque and others in a dining facility" of the 209th Corps of the Afghan army.

The general, who did not give a toll, praised the Afghan commandos who brought the "atrocity to an end".

The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies assisting a much larger Afghan force in the war against the Taliban and other militants.

Nicholson in February told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that he needed "a few thousand" more troops to help train and assist the Afghan forces.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms had launched the assault on the army compound on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province.

"In total, there were 10 attackers involved in the attack on the Afghan army corps. Seven of them were killed, two blew themselves up, and one was detained by Afghan forces," Waziri told AFP.

The attack began at around 2 pm (0930 GMT) and was over by early evening, he said.