Berlin – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday offered Afghanistan condolences after an attack in which Taliban militants killed no fewer than 140 soldiers.
“I heard with horror the news about the Taliban’s deceitful, brutal barracks attack on your soldiers in the North of Afghanistan.
“My sympathy to the many injured and the relatives of the many victims,’’ Merkel wrote in a condolence telegram to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
No fewer than 140 soldiers were killed and over 160 people wounded when Taliban militants disguised in military uniforms entered an army command centre with forged documents and military vehicles near the city of Mazar-e Sharif.
Report says the army post is the command centre for northern Afghanistan and where a contingent from the German army is based.
Germany has about 941 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing NATO training mission dubbed “Resolute Support.”
Report says the mission aims to support Afghan forces so that the country can eventually provide security services without foreign assistance.
Meanwhile, Germany has previously had as many as 5,000 troops in the country to provide training and logistic support to Afghanistan.
However, no German soldiers were affected by the attack.
Friday’s attack was the second such attack on a secure facility in recent months.
In early March, Islamic State militants attacked a military hospital in Kabul, killing 49 people and leaving 76 wounded.