A suicide bomber killed 15 Afghan army trainees as they were leaving their base in Kabul on Saturday, the defence ministry said, in the latest deadly attack in the capital. “This afternoon when a minibus carrying army cadets was coming out of the military academy, a suicide bomber on foot targeted them, martyring 15 and wounding four,” defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told reporters. It was the fifth time since Tuesday that militants have launched a major attack against Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces already badly demoralised by high casualties and desertions. In the deadliest of the recent attacks, around 50 Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban-claimed assault on a military base in the southern province of Kandahar. Afghan security forces have faced soaring casualties in their attempts to hold back the insurgents since Nato combat forces pulled out of the country at the end of 2014.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 21, 2017 13:30 UTC