SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least three rockets struck Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan overnight, an official and Taliban said on Sunday, as the insurgent group pressed on with their sweeping offensive across the country.
“Last night three rockets were fired at the airport and two of them hit the runway… Due to this all flights from the airport have been cancelled,” airport chief Massoud Pashtun told AFP.
Pashtun said work to repair the runway was underway and expected the airport to be operational later on Sunday.
An official at the civil aviation authority in Kabul confirmed the rocket attack.
Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed it had struck the airport with at least three rockets.
“Kandahar airport was targeted by us because the enemy were using it as a center to conduct air strikes against us,” Mujahid told Reuters.
The Taliban have for weeks launched withering assaults on the outskirts of Kandahar, stirring fears that the insurgents were on the verge of capturing the provincial capital.
Kandahar’s air base is vital to providing the logistics and air support needed to keep the militants from overrunning Afghanistan’s second-biggest city.
The attack on the airport came as the Taliban inched closer to overrunning two other provincial capitals – Herat in the west and Lashkar Gah in the south.
