A Shortage of Coffins’ After Taliban Slaughter Unarmed Soldiers -<br />By MUJIB MASHAL and NAJIM RAHIMAPRIL 22, 2017<br />KABUL, Afghanistan — They looked like Afghan Army soldiers returning from the<br />front lines, carrying the bodies of wounded comrades as part of the ruse.<br />In a new sign of how badly the Afghan military is faltering, the commander of the NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen.<br />John W. Nicholson, has requested a few thousand additional American soldiers to assist in training Afghan recruits..<br />“The enemy has the strength — they have more people in their units now —<br />and the speed of action,” said Rahmatullah Nabil, the former head of the Afghan intelligence service.<br />“The two explosions alone, God forgive me if I am wrong, probably killed 80 people.”<br />As Mr. Ghani met with his security officials at the army base, dozens of relatives of soldiers waited outside to receive news, or the coffins.<br />For the next five hours, the militants went on a rampage, killing at least 140 soldiers<br />and officers in what is emerging as the single deadliest known attack on an Afghan military base in the country’s 16-year war.<br />A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the assailants had been led by four soldiers in<br />the base, home to the 209th Army Corps, who had long been working as militant infiltrators.<br />“The army corps was not allowing anyone in — not even 100 meters close to the base,” Mr. Khan said.
