Kandahar // At least 37 people were killed when Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms stormed Kandahar airport, triggering gun battles in a lengthy siege as president Ashraf Ghani yesterday sought to revive peace talks at a regional conference.
The raid on the airport complex, which also houses a joint Nato-Afghan base, is the most serious attack on the largest military installation in southern Afghanistan in 14 years of war.
Witnesses said the assailants had taken some families hostage, using them as human shields after storming the complex at sunset on Tuesday, slowing down the military’s clearance operation.
“The fighting started about 6pm and intensified over the night,” 30-year-old university student Izatullah, who lives inside the complex, said.
“Soldiers were calling on Taliban attackers to let women and children go but attackers declined. We could hear children screaming during the fighting.”
More than 20 hours after the siege began, the Afghan defence ministry said nine insurgents had been shot dead, one was injured and another was still holding out against the soldiers.
“Unfortunately during the battle, 37 innocent Afghans were killed and 35 others injured,” the ministry said.
The militants had managed to breach the first gate of the high-security complex and took up position in an old school building, engaging security forces in pitched gun battles.
The Taliban posted a picture on their website of the militants it said were involved in the attack. It shows 10 young men sporting Kalashnikovs and identical military uniforms.
The face of one of them is obscured with blue ink for unknown reasons.
“The martyrdom seekers... entered Kandahar airbase undetected ... and began thunderous attacks,” the post said.
It claimed that the assailants reported that about 80 Afghan and foreign forces had been killed and 13 armoured carriers destroyed.
The insurgents are regularly known to exaggerate battlefield claims.
The raid coincides with Afghan president’s visit to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference aimed at promoting regional ties.
Mr Ghani’s willingness to visit longtime nemesis Pakistan, which wields considerable influence over the Taliban, has signalled a renewed push to mend cross-border ties which in turn could help jumpstart peace talks with the insurgents.
The raid also comes after days of speculation about the fate of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour following reports that he was critically wounded in a firefight with his own commanders in Pakistan.
The Taliban released an audio message Saturday purportedly from Mansour, vehemently rejecting reports of any shootout as “enemy propaganda”.
“It has become a familiar pattern. Whenever there is talk about peace talks, the Taliban launch big attacks,” Atiqullah Amarkhil, a military analyst in Kabul said. “It shows that either they want to scuttle efforts towards talks or want big concessions before they reach the negotiating table.”
Pakistan, which supports the Afghan Taliban, hosted a first round of negotiations in July.
But the talks soon stalled when the Taliban belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar, sparking a power struggle within the movement.
The leadership of the insurgent group is once again in question, after days of frantic conjecture about the fate of Mansour.
The Taliban has bounced back in recent months, opening new battlefronts across the country with Afghan forces struggling to rein in the expanding insurgency.
* Agence France-Presse
