Helmand Base Attack Exposes Intelligence Weakness in Security Institutions: Analysts

A number of Afghan military analysts say last week’s Taliban attack on Camp Shorab in southern Helmand province in which dozens of the security forces were killed and wounded,  exposes the intelligence weakness in the security institutions.  

At least 25 Afghan soldiers were killed and scores more wounded in the attack which targeted the 215 Maiwand Army Corps in volatile Helmand.

According to the officials, the attack was the Taliban’s third attempt to overrun Camp Shorab, a strategic military installation in the province.

“The Taliban are making better plans and have clear goals, it take them months to plan their attacks while the government is failed to prevent such kind of attacks,”  said Mohammad Agul Mujahid, an Afghan military analyst based in Kabul.

It is not the first time, the Taliban are storming military bases in Afghanistan, on April 2017, the armed group launched a deadliest-ever assault on a major military base in northern Balkh province which left more than 250 soldiers dead.

“It is clear, military bases are their [the Taliban] main political and economic targets, therefore, they are trying to use different directions to storm such camps which bring military and political value for them,” said Atiqullah Amarkhil, a Kabul based military analyst.

The government, however, said that the attacks on major Afghan military bases are being planned outside the country.

Asadullah Khalid, the Acting Defense Minister said that the attackers of Camp Shorab had influenced in Maiwand Corps and that their attack had been planned across the Durand Line.

The attack on Camp Shorab come even as U.S. officials are holding talks with the Taliban in Qatar to seek a negotiated solution to end the war in war-weary in Afghanistan.