50 killed at Kandahar airport attack

Afghan officials say at least 50 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in an attack by Taliban militants on an airport in the southern city of Kandahar and the ensuing clashes with security forces.

Thomson ReutersAfghan President Ashraf Ghani participates in “The New Beginning in Afghanistan: A Conversation with H.E. Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” at Columbia University in New YorkThe resignation raises fresh questions over the leadership of Afghanistan’s security apparatus, which has struggled to contain a Taliban insurgency that has gained momentum since worldwide forces ended most combat operations a year ago. With ultimate mopping up operations continuing late on Wednesday. afternoon in Kandahar, 24 hours after the attack started, 37 civilians & members of Afghan safety forces had been killed & 35 wounded, the defense ministry stated.

Ghani visited Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia process ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s near and far neighbors to discuss security and economic cooperation in the war-torn country.

Some 27 hours after the siege began, soldiers late on Wednesday killed the last insurgent who was holed up inside a building and doggedly resisted security forces till the very end. One attacker was arrested.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation spokesman for the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said there were no coalition casualties in the Kandahar assault.

Initial reports gathered by UNAMA indicate that Taliban fighters dismounted their vehicles in the bazaar and opened fire, killing and injuring civilian shopkeepers and customers and the fighting reportedly continued in the residential areas of the base accommodating the families of Afghan security forces and airport staff.

But sharp differences over how to deal with Pakistan also contributed to his departure, which leaves Afghanistan without a defence minister and head of intelligence at a time when the insurgency is gaining potency.

At least 70 reported dead in Kandahar airport siege as conference on Afghanistan’s future gets under way in Pakistan.

Kunduz, however, was the first in a series of successes as the emboldened militants saw gains in southern Helmand province, approaching Lashkar Gah, raising their flag in the main centre of Ghurian district, and taking over Warduj district. In a speech, Ghani praised Pakistan’s pledge to resume talks and respect Afghan sovereignty.

The most devastating one happened in 2012 when Taliban combatants wearing US military uniforms succeeded in storming Camp Bastion in neighboring Helmand province, demolishing aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

They briefly captured the strategic northern city of Kunduz in September in their most spectacular victory in 14 years.