More than 140 soldiers have died in a Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan.

Fighters targeted a mosque and a dining area at an Afghan army base in the city of Mazar-e Shharif in Balkh province on Friday.

President Ashraf Ghani was expected to visit the base later on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride reports from Kabul.

More than 140 Afghan soldiers have been killed in the Taliban attack on a military base in Mazar-e-Sharif, the city of Balkh province. The Defense Ministry said that most of our soldiers were studying Friday prayers during the attack. More than 140 soldiers of Afghan army have been killed.

Earlier, US military spokesman Colonel John Thomas had told that the attack lasted for several hours and stopped in the evening. Nearly 50 Afghani soldiers were killed in this attack. He said that it can not be clearly stated now how far the US-led coalition army was in place of the attack.

On the other hand, Afghan Army spokesman Ahmed Javid Saleem believes that 20 soldiers have died and 31 are injured. At the same time, according to the New York Times, the number of deaths has reached 66, while 74 soldiers are injured.

Afghan Army spokesman Nasartullah Jamshedi said that the attack was near the mosque located in the military base. The soldiers were praying on Friday.

He told that six Taliban attackers came under Afghan soldier uniforms in two military vehicles. These assailants told the guards on the gate that the injured soldiers are in the vehicles and they must be delivered immediately, so they immediately open the gate. Jamshedi said that after this Taliban attackers attacked the Afghan soldiers with kerosene propelled grenades and guns. An attacker was killed in the counter action while five others were arrested.

India's PM Narendra Modi has condemned the attack in stern words. He tweeted that he condemned the masked terrorist attack in Mazar-e-Sharif. In this attack, there are total sentiments of those families who have lost their loved ones.

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