2 Top Military Officials in Afghanistan Resign After Taliban Attack

The Afghan minister of defense and the army chief of staff both resigned on Monday as the government faced mounting pressure over a Taliban sneak attack that killed more than 160 soldiers last week.

Shahhussain Murtazawi, a spokesman for the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, confirmed the resignations of the defense minister, Gen. Abdullah Habibi, and the chief of staff, Gen. Qadam Shah Shahim.

In the single deadliest Taliban attack of the long war against Afghan forces, 10 assailants drove onto the country’s largest base in the north on Friday, disguised as soldiers carrying wounded comrades. Some of them detonated explosives among hundreds of unarmed troops who were emerging from Friday Prayer, while others went on a rampage gunning down soldiers, most of them new recruits in training.