Huge attack shows Taliban strength at outset of talks

Afghan men stand in front of a collapsed building of a military base after a car bomb attack in Maidan Wardak, Afghanistan, January 21, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

KABUL (Reuters) - With one of the deadliest attacks of Afghanistan's 17-year insurgency just hours before a new round of peace talks, the Taliban rammed home its message that it intends to agree any settlement from a position of strength on the battlefield.

The attack, carried out with a captured military Humvee packed with explosives, killed as many as 100 or more soldiers, police and pro government militiamen at a base in Maidan Wardak province west of Kabul. The base had been run by the National Directorate for Security, the country's main spy agency.