An Afghan official sa…
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The Taliban said it started its attack on the heavily fortified Kandahar Air Field in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Tuesday evening, according to BBC.
The attack in Kandahar province – a Taliban heartland – comes as the insurgents have expanded their footprint in Afghanistan in recent months.
After years of costly involvement, most North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops pulled back from the front lines by the end of 2014, although a residual force of around 13,000 remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.
The Defense Ministry said the last of the 11 militants behind the assault were killed late Wednesday but not before killing 50 people – the majority of whom were civilians. “Nine insurgents have been killed, one other is injured and another one is still holding up against our forces”, the defence ministry said. The commanders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The Taliban said suicide attackers had entered the base and attacked worldwide forces and their Afghan allies.
The Taliban said in a statement 150 soldiers had been killed but the movement has often made exaggerated casualty claims in the past. It has both a military and a civilian section, as well as a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base.
A spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support mission said there had been no reports of casualties among the hundreds of global personnel at the air base but he had no other details.
“It is important and we want to take the relations further-I will only be able to tell you more when I am leaving”, she told reporters after arriving at the airport Tuesday.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousof Ahmadi denied the infighting, saying instead that the Taliban are fighting local police forces in Shindand district in Herat. Mansoor’s leadership was challenged among some followers, and a breakaway Taliban faction emerged, followed by clashes between the two groups.
The Taliban stepped up attacks during a summer offensive launched in late April against the Western-backed government in Kabul. The brazen raid on the sprawling compound, which also houses a joint Nato-Afghan base, is the second major Taliban assault in as many days in the city. Later, an Afghan investigation concluded that weak leadership, misuse of resources and lack of coordination between services were the main reasons Kunduz fell to the Taliban.
Afghan security forces inspect damages after clashes between…
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The attack is another blow to the Afghan security forces, who have been stretched by a stubborn insurgency since the global military coalitoin withdrew the bulk of its troops.
