Alwaght- Death Toll from Taliban's attack on a military base in Afghanistan's Wardak province has reached over 120.
Provincial council member Nafisa Selai Wardak said at least 126 security forces were killed in the attack that began Monday morning when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive laden-vehicle outside the base in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, Al Jazeera reported.
Another provincial council member, Khawanin Sultani, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the attack also left more than 70 wounded.
Initially, the government had said 12 people were killed and about 30 were wounded.
Some of the injured were in provincial hospitals, while the more serious cases were being treated in Kabul, said Salem Asgherkhail, head of the area's public health department.
The New York Times reported the base was a training center for the country's national intelligence service, the NDS.
If true, this would be the intelligence agency's largest single loss of life in the 17-year war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated attack, which began with a car bomb that detonated at the gate of the base in Maidan Shahr, according to Nasrat Rahimi, the deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
Armed Taliban fighters then moved in, a tactic the group has used in many previous attacks.
The attack came a day after a Taliban assault in the neighbouring Logar province killed eight security forces.
The Taliban has been on the offensive in recent months, attacking targets around the country in an apparent effort to expand their influence and perhaps to gain more leverage in any future peace talks.
