Second attack in three days.

Via LWJ

The Afghan Taliban have claimed credit for a suicide assault on a base in Kandahar province that hosts Coalition and Afghan forces. The suicide assault today in the southern province is the second such attack in Afghanistan in four days.

Today’s suicide assault targeted a base in the district of Zhari, long considered to be the cradle of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Zhari, which has been described as “the heart of darkness” due to Taliban rule, was one of several districts that the International Security Assistance Force focused on during the limited surge of US forces from 2010 to 2011.

The attack began when a Taliban suicide bomber, identified by the Taliban as “Izzatullah,” rammed a truck laden with explosives into the perimeter of the base. Then a heavily armed Taliban squad dressed in ISAF uniforms breached the base and engaged ISAF and Afghan forces.

The Taliban claimed the attack in a statement on Voice of Jihad, saying that five fighters were involved in the follow-on assault. The Taliban identified the fighters as “Zarraar, Zarqawi Helmandi, Abdullah Kunduzi, Anas Daikondi and Habib Ghaznawi” and said they were “armed with heavy/light weapons and explosives vests.”

Afghan officials claimed that up to nine fighters attacked the base. Security forces gunned down the Taliban fighters during the ensuing firefight. ISAF has confirmed that one Coalition soldier was killed during the suicide attack.

“An International Security Assistance Force service member died following a coordinated suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack by enemy forces in southern Afghanistan today,” ISAF said in a statement that was obtained by The Long War Journal. US forces are known to operate in Kandahar.

“Operational reports state there was moderate damage to the outer perimeter of the base; however, the base is currently secured and all enemy forces were killed as a result of the attack,” ISAF said.

Today’s suicide assault is the second complex suicide operation in Zhari in the past four months that resulted in the death of Coalition forces. On Oct. 6, 2013, in a coordinated attack that included at least one suicide bomber and IEDS, the Taliban killed four US soldiers who were part of a combined US and Afghan patrol.