Taliban forces attacked the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday and were engaged in fighting with security forces, officials said.
Taliban forces attacked the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday and were engaged in fighting with security forces, officials said.
“Several insurgents (have) taken up position inside a school and firing at the airport,” said Sameem Khpalwak, a spokesman for the local governor. He said there were no reports of casualties and Afghan forces were returning fire.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said a number of fighters had entered the airport grounds and were fighting security forces.
“A number of mujahideen martyrdom seekers equipped with heavy and light weapons entered Kandahar airport and have attacked invading forces,” the Taliban said in as statement. Mohammad Mohsin Sult-ani, the military spokes-man, said the exact number of attackers was unclear.
Meanwhile, more than 50 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in renewed fighting between rival Taliban factions in Shindand district near the western Afghan city of Herat, a local police spokesman said on Tuesday.
The latest clashes underlined the fragmented state of the Islamist movement since the Taliban confirmed in July that its founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had died more than two years earlier in 2013. Rival groups have rejected the authority of Omar’s successor Mullah Akhtar Mansour and called for a new process to choose a leader. There has been intermittent fighting in which scores have been killed.
Ehsanullah Hayat, a police spokesman in Herat, said 54 insurgents had been killed and around 40 wounded in the fighting between commanders loyal to Mullah Mansour and his rival Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund, which he said was continuing. The clashes follow days of confusion over the fate of Mullah Mansour. Reports that he had been seriously wounded in a shootout with other Taliban commanders were rebutted in an audio recording purporting to show he was still alive.
It was not immediately possible to obtain a comment from the Taliban about the latest fighting. Separately, a video apparently from an Afghan member of the ISIS movement accused the Taliban of operating under the control of Pakistani intelligence services and ignoring sharia, as well as allying itself with Shia Iran.
