At least 14 people and eight Taliban fighters have been killed after an attack on the heavily fortified Kandahar airport compound in southern Afghanistan, officials say.
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According to Sameem Khpalwak, a spokesman for Kandahar governor, the assault occurred on Tuesday after the militants “managed to breach the first gate of the complex”.
Dawood Shah Wafadar, an Afghan military commander in Kandahar, said the total death toll was at least 18 – and that 28 others were injured.
Gunfight… An Afghan security man inspects damages after clashes between the Afghan police and Taliban militants at a military and airport complex in Kandahar. The insurgents are regularly known to exaggerate battlefield claims.
Cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan is seen as essential for Afghan peace but hopes for ties after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was inaugurated past year were quickly dashed, largely because of a series of bomb attacks in Kabul.
A weekend audio message claiming to be from Mansour refuted the reports, but some Taliban have questioned its authenticity.
A planned second round of talks following the July breakthrough was derailed after news leaked that Mullah Omar, the reclusive founder of the Afghan Taliban, had been dead for two years.
Speculation grew last week that Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, had been killed in a shootout in Kuchlak, western Pakistan.
Separately, a video apparently from an Afghan member of the Daesh group accused the Taliban of operating under the control of Pakistani intelligence services.
But the talks soon stalled when the Taliban belatedly confirmed the death of their longtime leader Mullah Omar. Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund has formed his own Taliban group and has openly challenged Mansour’s authority.
The building is close to the base for coalition forces, and very close to Afghan army family housing and schools, he said.
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But the attack, which coincided with the start of the Heart of Asia regional security conference in Islamabad, underlined the movement’s continuing ability to attack key targets after its success in briefly capturing the northern city of Kunduz in September.
