Eight contractors among dead in attack on NATO base in Kabul

The foreign trooper is American and the remaining eight victims are Afghans, according to Afghan sources. “I think that was a little over-optimistic”. “Anything is possible”.

Afghanistan’s national police and soldiers guard near the area of a suicide attack on the police academy, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, August 7, 2015.

“We again call upon the Taliban, other Afghan militant groups, and anyone supporting them to bring an end to violence in Afghanistan“, said a US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

But Friday’s attack included a massive truck bombing targeting a residential area in the capital that killed 15 people and wounded more than 200, something unusual.

Afghan shopkeepers sits next to his damaged shop after a bomb hidden in a truck exploded.

Under new leadership, the Taliban attacked a police academy in Kabul on Friday, killing as many as 60 people, including one U.S. soldier.

Later on Friday evening, insurgents launched an attack on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military base near Kabul’s global airport, according to the coalition spokesman, Col. Brian Tribus.

A suicide attacker struck near the Kabul police academy Friday, with heavy casualties expected in the second major attack in the Afghan capital in less than 24 hours.

The assaults undermined claims by security services and the government that the capital was immune from devastating attacks.

He is commonly referred to as Khalifa and is heading the Haqqani network of insurgents known for staging some of the deadliest attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. In the time since, Afghan security forces have been taking record casualties in their fight against insurgents across the country.

As they have been lined as much as re-enter the academy, the attacker detonated an explosives-packed vest, a safety official stated, chatting with The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not approved to launch the knowledge. That blast hit at 1 a.m. and also wounded 240, officials said.

Analysts said the series of attacks conveyed a no-compromise message from the Taliban, after last week’s revelation of Mullah Mohammad Omar’s death and an ongoing dispute over leadership of the radical Islamist group. In the past two weeks, the Taliban admitted that their founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was dead, and apparently had been since early 2013. That’s also raised questions about the peace process that Ghani has made pivotal to his presidency. That meeting, arranged by Pakistan, was seen as a potential first step toward negotiations between the two sides.

The Taliban has announced Mullah Mansur as Omar’s replacement, but some Taliban commanders have expressed support for Omar’s son, Yaqub. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. But these suggestions should be sent To avoid distracting other readers, we won’t publish comments that suggest a correction.

Later Saturday, hundreds gathered at a candlelight vigil in memory of those who died. “Jalaluddin Haqqani”, the Taliban said in a statement posted on their website. “The Afghan people are resilient, but the suffering caused by these tactics in terms of civilian deaths, injuries, and the loss of family members, is extreme, irreversible and unjustifiable in any terms”.