Kabul: Taliban gunmen stormed a guest house for foreign aid workers in the Afghan capital on Saturday and fought inside former US and British base Camp Bastion in the south, just a month after it was vacated.
The attacks spotlight the challenges facing Afghan security forces as most foreign troops prepare to withdraw.
Authorities fear hostages may have been taken in Saturday's assault on the guest house in Kabul's western Karte Seh district. The area was cordoned off and gunfire and explosions could be heard late into the evening. It was the second attack in three days to target the living quarters of international aid workers.
At least five Afghan soldiers were killed and nine injured in the attack on the army base in Helmand province, which began on Thursday evening. The base, formerly known as Camp Bastion, was used by British forces and US Marines before it was handed over to Afghan control last month.
Provincial officials in Helmand said 20 Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, including six suicide bombers who detonated their explosives.
On Saturday, Taliban militants engaged in a nearly four-hour gun battle with security forces at a building in western Kabul housing members of the American relief organisation Roots of Peace. Two staff members, including one foreigner, were killed and six others were trapped inside the compound but later rescued, said General Ayoub Salangi, the deputy interior minister.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying their fighters had targeted a Christian organisation seeking to convert Muslims.
The attacks were a latest in a string of suicide bombings and major violence throughout Afghanistan in recent weeks. Analysts say the Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for many of the assaults, are mounting a challenge to the new government of President Ashraf Ghani, which has signed security agreements with the United States and NATO to keep about 12,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan after December, when international combat troops complete their withdrawal.
