At least 37 civilians and members of Afghan security forces have been killed and 35 were wounded in Kandahar, Afghanistan, during an overnight siege by Taliban militants on the city’s airport, officials said Wednesday.
Nine Taliban militants were killed and another wounded. A final survivor was still resisting security forces, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Officials on Tuesday night said the attackers had opened fire around the perimeter of the large, heavily fortified complex, which houses both a civilian airport and military base. The militants initially took up a position in a school in a residential area of the city.
The Taliban gunmen opened fire at a bazaar near the Kandahar airport at 6:20 p.m. local time (8:50 a.m. ET) Tuesday, Samim Ekhpelwak, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province told CNN. Afghan forces returned fire.
Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan, is about 480 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of the capital of Kabul.
The attack coincided with the start of the Heart of Asia regional security conference in Islamabad, where Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a plea for more regional support to fight the Islamist insurgency, Reuters reported.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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