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8 Afghan Guards Killed in Shooting at Country’s Main US Base | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Army personnel standing outside a military base in Afghanistan. (AFP)


At least eight Afghan guards were killed in an ambush on Monday night after Taliban gunmen opened fire at them in the country’s northern Parwan province, the provincial official and the insurgents announced on Tuesday.

The shooting also left two other guards wounded, according to Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan governor. The guards were attacked while they were on their way to work at Bagram airfield, the main US military base in Afghanistan, she added.

Shahkar said the shooting is being investigated further.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the shooting in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday.

The insurgents have stepped up their attacks against Afghan security forces, and an affiliate of the ISIS terrorist group has been trying to expand its footprint in the country by launching large-scale attacks across Afghanistan.

In a separate report form eastern Nangarhar province, a judge was killed when his vehicle was blown up by a sticky bomb on Tuesday morning, according to Attuhullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Khogyani said that Sher Rahman was a judge in an anti-corruption court. Three people were wounded, including two of the judge’s brothers, in the explosion, which took place in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Nangarhar, but both the Taliban and ISIS militants are active in the region.

On Sunday, at least six police were killed and dozens of people wounded when as many as six gunmen and a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan.

It took Afghan security forces most of the day to kill the last gunmen, who had barricaded themselves in a kitchen in the compound, according to police.

The attack, claimed by the Taliban, began when one bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at the gate of the police headquarters in Gardez city, capital of Paktia province.

Around six attackers stormed the gate after the blast, with at least two quickly killed by police. The others held out against Afghan special forces that had responded to the attack.