Taliban attack on Kandahar airfield repelled; 46 killed

A almost 24 hour assault took place on the airfield near the southern Afghan city, an installation which houses a military wing, a civilian wing and a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base.

“I escaped unhurt, but a bodyguard was killed while another was wounded”, he said. This latest attack looks like an attempt by the militants to show they’re still a major threat.

Passengers from at least one commercial flight were caught up in the attacks Tuesday and were stuck in the passenger terminal until the fighting ceased.

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

The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying on Twitter that “150 Afghan and foreign soldiers” had been killed.

He said Pakistan was ready to extend support to a meaningful process, wherein both the Afghan government and the Taliban could move forward in a spirit of accommodation and reconciliation.

Roughly 10,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan, largely in a training and advisory role, though a large proportion of them are also conducting counterterrorism operations.

The attack comes amid reports of infighting among Taliban leaders.

The attack began late on Tuesday afternoon when a group of Taliban suicide bombers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and hand grenades broke through a main entrance of the airport, said General Abdul Razaq Sherzai, the Afghan air force commander in Kandahar province.

The fighters initially took up position in a school building close to the perimeter of the military area of the site in a section that contained accommodation for officials. The Taliban militants wearing suicide vests breached the front gate of the facility in what a pro-Taliban website referred to as an attack “against domestic and foreign forces”.

“Afghanistan’s national army forces are bravely fighting terrorists in airport areas and are trying to act cautiously to avoid harm to civilians”, the ministry said.

Women and children were among them, he said, adding that USA troops were advising Afghan forces in the battle. It’s a sprawling base with airfields used by the military and civilians. It has reported that 14 insurgents were killed. As well as nine killed, another was injured.

As worldwide military forces have withdrawn most of their troops from the country, the Afghan security forces have been stretched by a stubborn insurgency.