The Afghan leader’s visit to Pakistan came as at least eight people were killed in an all-night Taliban raid at an airport in Kandahar, highlighting the insurgents’ capacity to carry out dramatic attacks despite reports of factional infighting.
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After almost a full day of fighting against 10 to 15 insurgents at Kandahar Airport, Afghan forces on Wednesday finally ended the attack, which included suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic rifles. Attackers holed up in a building during the assault took family members of a military officer as hostages.
The attack is another blow to the Afghan security forces, who have been stretched by a stubborn insurgency since the worldwide military coalitoin withdrew the bulk of its troops.
On Monday night, two militants were killed and five security personnel wounded after Taliban attacked a police station in Kandahar city, some 450 km south of the Afghan capital.
The Afghan ministry of defence told Stars and Stripes, the United States military’s newspaper, that 38 were killed, 37 civilians and one Afghan army soldier.
“They have taken up position in a school inside the complex”.
“Soldiers were calling on Taliban attackers to let women and children go but attackers declined”.
The insurgents have been ramping up attacks on government and foreign targets despite the onset of the harsh winter season when the fighting usually winds down.
“Since last two days of intense battle, between rival Taliban commanders in Shindand district, there are reports of more than 100 Taliban fighters being killed from both sides”, said Ahmadi.
Afghan security forces inspect damages after clashes in Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015.
The sprawling air base played a central role in the yearslong US military campaign in the country and remains home to thousands of troops and contractors from the NATO-led global coalition that maintains a presence there.
Days earlier, contradictory reports emerged about the fate of the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, after he was said to be critically wounded in a firefight with fellow commanders in Pakistan.
He said that militants groups from all regional countries moved Afghanistan and became a great threat to world’s peace, whole region and global powers need to play their role in stablisation of Afghanistan is fight the war of whole world.
The raid coincides with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Islamabad on Wednesday for the Heart of Asia conference aimed at promoting regional ties.
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In the video, a man called Abu Yasir Al-Afghani accuses the Taliban of working with neighboring Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, which Pakistan denies.
