Kandhar airport casualties up

The Taliban have killed dozens of Afghan security forces and civilians during a lengthy siege on Kandahar airport, home to a large Nato military base in southern Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement that 37 people including women and children and Afghan national security forces had so far been killed, with another 35 wounded, with fighting still ongoing late Wednesday afternoon.

Ten militant fighters reportedly disguised in Afghan military uniforms breached the first layer of the airport’s security at around 6.30pm on Tuesday, minutes after the evening call to prayer.

Afghan officials claimed late on Tuesday night that the insurgents had been subdued, but fierce fighting continued for several hours afterwards, reportedly trapping passengers in the airport overnight. Unverified footage released by social media accounts sympathetic to the Taliban appeared to show heavy gunfire exchange.

On Wednesday, locals sources claimed surviving Taliban fighters had taken civilian hostages and remained firing from a building on the outskirts of the airfield.

The Kandahar airport hosts both a civil aviation airport and a large Nato base, where a contingent of hundreds of foreign soldiers still operate. There had been no reports of foreign casualties, a NATO spokesman said.

The attack on Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, is yet another ambitious attack by a reinvigorated insurgent movement that has been emboldened by the drawdown of international combat troops.

Taliban forces across the country have managed to capture increasingly large swathes of land, culminating in the 15 day occupation of Kunduz city in September, the first major city to fall to Taliban hands since 2001.

The insurgents’ military victories come at a time when the top Taliban leadership appear deeply fractured.

On Saturday, the Taliban released an audio recording of new leader Mullah Ahktar Mansoor in an effort to dispel claims by Afghan officials that he had been killed or seriously injured in a firefight with rival Taliban factions in Pakistan.

Sources: MENA