Taliban Claims Responsibility For Afghan Military Center Bombing

By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan

A truck-bomb attack at a military center in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province has killed at least five people and wounded several others.

The Taliban on May 4 claimed responsibility for the attack on the center, where at least 150 members of the Afghan army and intelligence services were stationed.

"Five members of the Afghan security forces and intelligence services were killed and seven others were wounded in a truck-bomb explosion in Grishk district," Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the regional governor, told RFE/RL.

The Taliban claimed the toll was much higher, saying that "dozens" of Afghan soldiers had been killed and wounded in the attack, which occurred late on May 3.

"Dozens of members belonging to the enemy forces have been killed and wounded in the attack," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmedi said in a statement.

The Afghan Defense Ministry had earlier said only one member of the army was wounded.

In a separate incident, at least 20 people were injured when suspected Taliban militants threw a hand grenade into a mosque in the Khayerkot district of the southeastern Paktika Province late on May 3, police said.

Afghan security forces have suffered heavy losses across the country over the past two months.

The violence threatens to unravel a February peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, as the Afghan army is forced to fight the militants with less U.S. backup.

With reporting by Reuters and Tolo News