46 killed in Taliban siege at Afghanistan airport

The death toll from a 27-hour Taliban siege of Kandahar airport has jumped to 50, Afghan officials said on Thursday, after a conference in Pakistan shored up global support for reviving peace talks.

It said the dead included 38 civilians, 10 Afghan soldiers and two police.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, said in a statement that the insurgents were still attacking Afghan forces late Wednesday and had killed “many soldiers and destroyed vehicles and helicopters”.

After years of costly involvement, most North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops pulled back from the front lines by the end of 2014, although a residual force of around 13,000 remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

Officials said fighters attacked a perimeter area of the huge and heavily fortified complex on Tuesday evening, initially taking up position in a school in a residential area, which houses both a civilian airport and military base. While the militants reportedly fired toward the base, Col. Michael Lawhorn, spokesman for the worldwide military coalition in Afghanistan, said no American or coalition troops were injured or killed in the attack.

“In the past, there has been the temptation to use non-state actors as instruments of foreign policy”, he added, in a clear reference to Afghan assertions that Pakistan supports the Taliban to maintain influence in Afghanistan. The Afghans accused Pakistani intelligence of covertly orchestrating a resurgence of Taliban violence.

The assault occurred hours after a “Message to Obama” was posted to a video site, purportedly of Taliban suicide attackers warning that US troops would not be safe in Afghanistan.

The southern province of Kandahar, with the provincial capital of the same name, is a Taliban heartland.

Separately, the Taliban claimed to have captured Khanashin district in southern Helmand province.

Afghan security forces inspect the damage after clashes between Taliban fighters and Afghan forces at Kandahar airport on Wednesday.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been trading accusations of supporting insurgents since Afghan peace talks brokered by Islamabad collapsed last summer, suspending a reconciliation process between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban.

The raid also comes after days of fevered speculation about the fate of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour following reports that he was critically wounded in a firefight with his own commanders in Pakistan.

Ties between Ghani and Nabil have been strained since the Taliban’s three-day capture of Kunduz city in September, which marked their biggest success in 14 years of war.