The sprawling airport has a military and a civilian section, as well as a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base.
Advertisement
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.
At least 14 Afghan security forces were killed and 11 were wounded, he said.
The site in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second biggest city, contains both a civilian airport and a large military base that houses thousands of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military personnel and civilian contractors in addition to Afghan forces.
Nine terrorists were also killed, the ministry said.
The Taliban, who often exaggerate the effects of their attacks, claimed responsibility on their website, saying the attackers killed scores of worldwide and Afghan troops.
One Afghan soldier was killed and three others injured. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation says there were no reports of casualties among foreign coalition troops as a result of the Taliban attack.
The siege on Kandahar Airport lasted for 26 hours until all the involved militants were killed.
One militant held out on his own inside the military base, which also has a civilian area, until late on December 9.
Officials said the fighters had attacked a perimeter area of the huge and heavily fortified complex on Tuesday evening, initially taking up position in a school in a residential area.
“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.
“It seems that the insurgents failed to get inside the base itself, so it’s not a security breach on the scale of the Camp Bastion attack in 2012”, the official said.
Afghan forces have struggled to roll back the insurgents since the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formally concluded their combat mission at the end of previous year.
The headquarters for the joint North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan military effort is in the airport.
Ghani’s willingness to visit Afghanistan’s longtime nemesis has signalled a renewed push to mend badly frayed cross-border ties, which could help jumpstart peace talks with the insurgents.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, co-chairing the conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, condemned the attack on Kandahar airport.
Advertisement
Taliban militants have also been fighting government forces in the neighboring Helmand province over the past several months, and they have claimed capturing Khanshin district in the province.
