Nine soldiers, four and five Afghan Force NATO in Afghanistan (ISAF) were killed Saturday in a suicide attack claimed by Taliban insurgents in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east the country.
"Five ISAF soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan," said the NATO force said in a statement without specifying their nationality.
A spokesman for ISAF, Major Tim James, confirmed to AFP that the attack in question was the suicide bombing in the morning in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east located in the area Gambires near Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense confirmed that "four Afghan soldiers were killed and eight people injured, four translators" during the attack.
The ministry said the attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who donned a military uniform.
One hundred soldiers of the ISAF, primarily responsible for advising the Afghan army, stationed at this base in the province of Laghman, according to Commander James ISAF.
One of the worst attacks against NATO since 2001
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, claimed the attack, among the deadliest for the NATO forces since their arrival in the country in late 2001.
Six NATO soldiers were killed Dec. 12 in southern Afghanistan during an attack.
The attack against the Afghan base is the tenth suicide attack in Afghanistan since early April.It is also the fifth in three days targeting Afghan security forces and international across the country.
On Friday, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the headquarters, in principle secure, the police in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, killing the police chief of the province of the same name and two of his bodyguards.
More than 130 000 soldiers present
NATO must send Afghan forces gradually, starting in July and by late 2014, the responsibility for security throughout the territory.
Some 132,000 soldiers from the NATO support the Kabul government against the insurgency since late 2001 by the Taliban, ousted by an international coalition.
Suicide bombings and small mines placed along the road are the favorite weapons the insurgents have focused primarily on the police and Afghan army and foreign troops, but are also numerous civilian casualties.
On 14 March, at least 36 people were killed and forty wounded in a Taliban suicide attack against a military recruiting center in Kunduz, one of the major cities of northern Afghanistan.
The city of Jalalabad was the scene, February 19, one of the most deadly attacks perpetrated in the country in recent years, when many Taliban suicide bombers stormed a bank where police came to collect their wages.Thirty-eight people were killed and 70 injured.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned against a precipitous withdrawal of NATO forces and warned that spring 2011 would probably be "violent" because of Taliban efforts to resume their offensive.
