At least 37 people were killed and 35 others wounded when Taliban militants stormed Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, with one gunman still resisting security forces, the defence ministry said
At least 37 people were killed and 35 others wounded when Taliban militants stormed Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, with one gunman still resisting security forces, the defence ministry said Wednesday.
An Afghan official says clashes between security forces and Taliban fighters are continuing.
Dawood Shah Wafadar, commander of the Afghan Army’s 205th division, said Wednesday that at least 37 people, both soldiers and civilians, had been killed in clashes at the Kandahar Air Field. Taliban fighters launched a major attack on the base, which houses both a military and civilian air field, on Tuesday.
Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousaf Ahmadi told The Associated Press that the militant group’s fighters had killed more than 50 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles and helicopters. Mr Ahmadi’s claim could not be independently confirmed and there was no reliable estimate on the number of Taliban fighters killed or wounded. “Nine insurgents have been killed, one other is injured and another one is still holding up against our forces,” the defence ministry said.
“Unfortunately during the battle, 37 innocent Afghans were killed and 35 others injured,” it added, without specifying how many of them were civilians.
Local residents said they had heard soldiers pleading with the insurgents to free women and children, who were screaming during the fighting that erupted shortly after sundown in the southern city on Tuesday. One security official told AFP that the assailants held some civilians as “human shields”, which had complicated their clearance operation. The brazen raid on the sprawling compound, which also houses a joint Nato-Afghan base, is the second major Taliban assault in as many days in the city.
The militants had managed to breach the first gate of the high-security complex and took up position in an old school building, engaging security forces in pitched firefights.
The raid coincides with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s high-profile visit to Islamabad on Wednesday for the Heart of Asia conference.
Mr Ghani’s willingness to visit longtime nemesis Pakistan, which wields considerable influence over the Taliban, has signalled a renewed push to mend badly frayed cross-border ties which in turn could help jump-start peace talks with the insurgents.
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.
