Afghan spy chief quits on dispute with President Ashraf Ghani

A large-scale Taliban assault on a key airport in southern Afghanistan ended late Wednesday, according to Afghan officials, who said that the deal toll his risen to 50.

“Fifty of our innocent countrymen, including 10 soldiers, two policemen and 38 civilians, were martyred in the attack”, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The brazen raid on the sprawling compound, which also houses a joint Nato-Afghan base, is the second major Taleban assault in as many days in the city recognised as the birthplace of the Taleban.

Taliban militants have also been fighting government forces in the neighboring Helmand province over the past several months, and they have claimed capturing Khanshin district in the province.

Correspondents say an enormous failure has been endangered by the attacks in Kandahar and Kunduz from the Afghan security forces.

Nine “armed terrorists” were also killed, the ministry said.

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.

A military commander in Kandahar said radio intercepts showed some assailants were speaking Urdu, a language more common in neighboring Pakistan, the Taliban’s historic backer.

“Eight people, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed”, Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor, told AFP.

As Afghan president Ashraf Ghani headed to a peace summit, Taliban insurgents were using the cover of darkness to mount an attack on the airfield at Kandahar, in his country’s south.

The offensive removed Taliban from power, but insecurity still remains in some provinces.

Leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan held firm to positions on their troubled ties at a conference on Afghanistan’s future on Wednesday that risked being overshadowed by a Taliban attack in Afghanistan’s biggest city.

“There was considerable uncertainty whether Pakistan would truly acknowledge a sovereign Afghan state, with its legitimate government and its legitimate constitution”, he said.

Cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan is seen as essential for Afghan peace but hopes for warmer ties after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was inaugurated a year ago were quickly dashed, largely because of a series of bomb attacks in Kabul.