2017 Camp Shaheen attack

Part of the War in Afghanistan (2015-present)

Date	21 April 2017
Location	Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan
Result	Between 140 and 256 people dead. Afghan Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff of the Afghan National Army resigns 3 days later.

Belligerents

Taliban

Haqqani network

Afghanistan

209th Corps

Commanders and leaders

Mullah Taj Mir Jawad
Qari Abdul Raouf Zakir

Unknown

Strength

10 fighters (Taliban claim)

3,000 soldiers

Casualties and losses

All killed

140–256 Afghan soldiers killed, 160+ injured

Taliban

Afghanistan

On 21 April 2017, at least ten Taliban fighters attacked Camp Shaheen, headquarters of the 209 Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA), near Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province. The death toll was unclear—official Afghan government statements said about 140 people were killed and 160 injured, while media reports said as many as 256 were dead.

Taliban fighters, wearing uniforms and driving two military vehicles, drove into the base, claiming to have wounded soldiers in need of urgent medical care. A witness said the attackers passed unchallenged through an outer checkpoint, killed two guards at the next one, and destroyed a third one with rocket-propelled grenades (RPG).

At the time of the attack, most soldiers were unarmed, attending Friday prayers at a mosque on the base and eating at a restaurant. A soldier who witnessed the attack said "It was a chaotic scene and I didn't know what to do [...] There was gunfire and explosions everywhere." Another soldier described how an attacker had set up a machine gun through the window of a truck "and shot everyone in his way." It was the single deadliest known attack on an Afghan military base in the course of the war.

According to the Taliban, four of the attackers had served as soldiers, who had been stationed at the base, and knew its layout. Two of the attackers detonated their suicide vests in the mosque and eight others were killed in the ensuing gun battle. It took about five hours for security forces, who responded to the attack, to kill the militants and secure the base. 140 soldiers were killed and 160 wounded in the massacre, according to provincial official Mohammad Ibrahim Khair Andesh. On 25 April, Afghan news agency TOLOnews reported 256 soldiers had been killed, and that the government was withholding the higher death toll. A Taliban statement released after the attack said at least 500 Afghan soldiers had been injured or killed.

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Wikipedia