Liberals mum on Afghan security funding renewal in wake of Kandahar attack

Taliban militants killed dozens of civilians in a failed attack on a major military base in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, after coalition andAfghan security forces prevented the militants from getting on the facility, the coalition command said.

Taliban insurgents infiltrated a heavily protected airport and killed 50 people in an attack lasting more than 24 hours, Afghan officials said Thursday.

“Fifty of our innocent countrymen, including 10 soldiers, two policemen and 38 civilians, were martyred in the attack”, the defence ministry said.

The ministry statement said that a total of 11 insurgents had taken part in the attack.

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.

On Tuesday night, Taliban fighters targeted a residential compound and military bases at the airport, which is used by Afghan, US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military forces.

It claimed that the assailants reported via telephone that some 80 Afghan and foreign forces had been killed and 13 armoured carriers destroyed.

The attack follows an earlier incident in which two suicide bombers died attacking a police station in Kandahar, one of the traditional Taliban strongholds.

The siege took place as Taliban jihadists attempted to fight their way onto a military base adjacent to the airport.

The airport also accommodates a large North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military base within its confines in southern Afghanistan.

The statement added that 37 people, including 17 army soldiers, were injured in the attack.

The NDS chief’s resignation comes just a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani while attending the “Heart of Asia” conference in Islamabad agreed to restart dialogue with the Taliban.

As many as 37 people have been killed and another 35 wounded in the brazen attack, for which the Taliban claims responsibility.

Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed their commitment to the peace process, with the United States and China also offering support.

The siege is only the latest in a series of battlefield victories by the Taliban who briefly seized the northern city of Kunduz in September.

Ghani’s willingness to visit Afghanistan’s neighbor signaled a renewed push to mend badly frayed cross-border ties, which could help jumpstart long-stalled peace talks with the insurgents.

In recent days, the Taliban has denied reports that new leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was wounded or killed in a gunfight with fellow commanders.