Over 100 dead in brazen Taliban attack on Afghan intelligence base

A huge Taliban attack on an Afghan intelligence base on Monday has left at least 100 dead, security sources have said, with the death toll massively increased from initial predictions.

"We have information that 126 people have been killed in the explosion inside the military training centre, eight special commandoes are among the dead," a source told Reuters.

Militants detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the training facility before gunmen arrived and opened fire on survivors. 

Officials initially said that just 12 or 14 people were killed in the attack, although this figure was raised to at least the dozens.

"We took about 65 bodies out of the rubble yesterday," Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council in Wardak province, told AFP.  

Militants rammed a Humvee filled with explosives into the National Directorate of Security (NDS) base in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak, around 50 kilometres south of Kabul.

The attack was on a training facility for the NDS, the Afghan intelligence agency, meaning that any toll will likely be difficult to confirm.

"Then at least three other attackers in a Toyota car who were following the Humvee entered the compound," Wardak provincial council member Abdul Wahid Akbarzai told AFP Tuesday.

Most of the casualties were caused by the roof collapse. 

"It is a big loss," council head Akhtar Mohammad Tahiri said. 

"The NDS forces are better trained and equipped than the Afghan police and army soldiers who have been dying in record numbers." 

He added the militants were dressed in uniforms used by Afghan special forces.

The attack comes days after a Taliban suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Logar province's governor, killing at least seven security guards.   

Fighting has erupted in Afghanistan recently despite winter usually being a quiet period for Taliban attacks.

The Taliban recently announced a resumption of talks with US officials in Qatar as the two sides discuss a possible peace deal that could pave the way their participation in Afghanistan’s political process.

Washington has not confirmed their claim but talks are continuing.

US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has led talks with the Taliban but a major stumbling block is the militants' refusal to talk to the Afghan government.