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A Taliban suicide assault team stormed the governor’s compound in Parwan province Sunday, killing at least 22 (not including the six attackers). It was a particularly brazen attack, happening only six miles from Bagram, the biggest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in the center of the relatively peaceful province north of Kabul. The strike began as Afghan officials were conducting a meeting inside the compound. A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at the gate of the governor’s walled compound in Charikar, puncturing its fortifications and letting five other militants inside.
Armed with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles, they quickly found themselves in a firefight with Afghan security forces that lasted two hours. “Sunday’s attack killed more than 100 most of them US-NATO cowardly troops and advisers besides causing the enemy severest losses,” a Taliban-allied website reported. The Taliban routinely exaggerate their battlefield successes. But the attack is the latest sign the Taliban are stepping up high-profile attacks in high-profile places even as the U.S. military begins pulling out.