Helmand officials deny death toll claiming all 9 militant attackers were killed Deadly assault comes during break in Taliban-US peace talks KABUL: At least 20 soldiers are believed to have been killed and others injured during a Taliban attack on a key Afghan-US military base in Helmand province on Friday. The pre-dawn assault on the Shorab compound came during a pause in peace talks between Taliban and US officials in the Qatari capital Doha. Militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, engaged in a heavy firefight with Afghan forces at the base where US troops are also stationed. Officials in Helmand later claimed that all nine of the assailants who had taken part in the raid were killed, and there were no reports of any US military casualties. The Shorab attack is the first major one to be conducted by the Taliban since the group began direct peace talks with US diplomats in a bid to bring an end to the long-running conflict in Afghanistan. It came as Taliban and US negotiators — led by Washington’s special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad — took a break from their latest round of discussions in Doha, which both sides have described as positive. Ahead of the talks, the Taliban had said that the focus of the meeting was the total withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, with the insurgents guaranteeing that Afghan soil would never again be used against US interests or any other nation. Citing US and European officials with knowledge about the progress of the Doha talks, The New York Times reported that the US was looking at keeping its troops in Afghanistan for up to five years, with the Taliban agreeing to join a provisional government. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the report was propaganda by the “anti-peace crowd” with Afghans “inching closer toward peace.” In a statement Mujahid said: “No talks have been held in the meetings regarding an interim government and elections, nor has the US side proposed anything regarding staying in Afghanistan for four or five years.” On the Shorab assault, another Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, said the attackers had caused serious damage to a fleet of helicopters inside the base. But Helmand governorate officials denied Ahmadi’s account, adding that nine assailants had taken part in the attack and all of them had been killed. Despite the peace talks, fighting has continued to take place in Afghanistan between the Taliban and US-backed Afghan forces. Former Afghan diplomat Ahmad Saeedi said the Shorab attack and previous military pushes were normal attempts to try and gain an upper hand in negotiations. “Whenever peace talks reach an important stage, the warring sides try to have military gains so they can bargain at the peace table from a position of strength,” Saeedi told Arab News.