30 Taliban Fighters Die in Explosion During Bomb-Making Class

Thirty Taliban militants were killed when a bomb exploded during a bomb-making class at a mosque in Afghanistan’s Balkh province.

Six of the dead were foreigners who were “expert mine makers,” The Khaama Press News Agency reported, citing military officials.

The mosque is situated in a village in Dowlatabad district, where the group had gathered to be trained in making bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED).

A representative of the Afghan Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps said in a statement Saturday that only 24 bodies of the deceased, who were from Afghanistan, have been identified.

The Taliban often use IEDs to target government and foreign forces in the war-torn country. Thousands of civilians have also been killed as “collateral damage.”

Inadvertent detonations during bomb-making or training to assemble explosive devices have occurred multiple times among militants in the country.

Last year in April, four Taliban fighters were killed while making a bomb in Ghazni province, Ava Press reported.

A month later, a bomb exploded in a house in the southern province of Zabul, where a group of militants had gathered to assemble the explosive, leaving the building destroyed and three militants, including the homeowner, dead.

Meanwhile, in August, four more Taliban fighters died in a similar fashion in Balkh while making explosives in Chahabar Bolak district.

The explosion also destroyed a large cache of explosives the group had assembled in a mosque.