ABUL At least two dozen Afghan security forces were killed Friday in an insider attack on their base in southern Afghanistan, two officials said. Several “infiltrators” opened fire on their comrades as they slept, Zabul governor Rahmatullah Yarmal said, in one of the deadliest attacks since the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban last month. The pre-dawn raid targeted a joint police and army headquarters near Qalat, the provincial capital, long considered a Taliban stronghold. “In the attack, 14 Afghan army forces and 10 policemen were killed,” Zabul provincial council chief Ata Jan Haq Bayan said. He added that four other Afghan security forces were missing. “The attackers had connections with the Taliban insurgents,” Bayan said. They fled in two military Humvee vehicles, along with a pickup truck, weapons and ammunition.Yarmal confirmed the toll said. The Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The incident comes a day after Afghan Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid called on the Taliban to commit to a cease-fire as a way of tackling the novel coronavirus, which observers fear is spreading unchecked through the impoverished country. Khalid also said Afghan forces should assume a more aggressive “active defense” posture against the An Afghan government spokesman said on Thursday that the Taliban must end violence before Kabul releases its imprisoned fighters, a day after US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington would like to see the process begin as soon as possible. Under a deal signed by the US and the Taliban in Doha on Feb. 29, the Afghan government was obliged to free 5,000 Taliban inmates in return for 1,000 members of the security forces held by the group by March 10, when the first round of intra-Afghan peace talks was expected to start. Based on an order by President Ashraf Ghani, who took the oath of office for a second term on March 9, the prisoner release process should have started on March 14. The government has not justified the delay, but
