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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents killed six Afghan soldiers in an assault on an army base Friday that lasted more than 14 hours, a day after attacks on foreign targets in Kabul killed two British embassy employees.
Nearly 30 insurgents, including seven suicide bombers, swarmed Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province in the early hours of Friday morning, said the deputy head of the Afghan National Army in the province, Ghulam Farooq Parwani.
British forces handed over Camp Bastion to the Afghan army in late October as part of a transition that will see the U.S. and NATO combat mission end on Dec. 31. The Taliban claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.
Also in Helmand Friday, two police officers were killed and two wounded in a suicide attack on their vehicle in Nawzad district, local police spokesman Ahmad Obaid said.
In eastern Nangahar province, 31 people were wounded when a mosque was bombed during Friday prayers, said Niamatullah Noorzai the chief of volatile Khogyani district. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Afghan government's support for a continued international military presence has incensed the insurgents, who are intensifying their war against the administration of President Ashraf Ghani.
Immediately after his September inauguration, Ghani signed bilateral security agreements with the U.S. and NATO, and he has made clear his intention bring peace to Afghanistan, which has been at war for the past 30 years.
Kabul has seen almost daily attacks in recent weeks, as insurgents turn their attention to foreign targets.
On Thursday, a suicide attacker in a car filled with explosives struck a British embassy vehicle on a busy road in the east of the capital, killing a British security guard and an Afghan driver.
Late Friday evening, a complex attack, also claimed by the Taliban, was launched against a guesthouse occupied by a U.S. logistics contractor, Aecom Technology Corporation, according to police and security officials.
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