Maidan Shar attack

On 21 January 2019, in Maidan Shar, the capital of Maidan Wardak Province in central Afghanistan, the Taliban carried out an attack on a military compound used by the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS). The attack began when a vehicle laden with explosives rammed through a military checkpoint and detonated inside the compound. Defence ministry officials said the attackers used a Humvee taken from government forces to carry the bomb. After the explosion, two to five Taliban gunmen entered the compound and opened fire on Afghan soldiers before being fatally shot during the ensuing clashes. A provincial council member, Abdul Wahid Akbarzai, said the attackers had been dressed in Afghan special forces uniforms. The attack occurred on the same day Taliban representatives met with Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan peace talks, in Qatar.

Casualty figures varied widely and were disputed. A senior official in the Afghan defense ministry said 126 people were killed in the explosion. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said more than 190 people were killed. The NDS itself reported 36 military personnel killed and 58 injured. Other local officials gave differing figures: Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council, said at least 65 were killed; another source in the province said more than 100 NDS members were killed; provincial council member Sharif Hotak said he personally saw the bodies of 35 Afghan soldiers at a hospital and asserted the government was concealing the true toll; and Khawanin Sultani, another provincial council member, said more than 70 were wounded. Local officials said no official casualty confirmation had been made and that officials were reportedly told not to discuss figures with media for fear of damaging morale.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, stating that Afghan intelligence agency personnel were the target. His office described the attackers as "enemies of the country." Afghan security officials separately claimed the base was used to train "public uprising forces," a pro-government militia, and that many of those killed were militia trainees — a claim that contradicted Ghani's statement that only NDS personnel were targeted. International reactions included condemnation from Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.

In the aftermath, on 23 January, the NDS said it had killed the attack's organizer along with seven militants in an airstrike. The Taliban rejected this as "propaganda." Local residents and officials also disputed the NDS claim, with Sharifullah Hotak alleging that six civilians were killed in the airstrike.