Afghanistan: Taliban rockets attack Kandahar airport

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Aerial view of Kandahar (archive image)

Photo: JASON REED / AFP

All flights at the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have been canceled for the time being after it was partially destroyed by a rocket fire by the Taliban.

As airport manager Massud Pashtun told the AFP news agency, at least three bullets hit on Saturday evening.

Two of them hit the runway.

The Reuters agency also reported on the incident.

The airport plays an essential role in the city's defense against radical Islamists.

Previously, on Saturday, renewed fighting between government troops and the radical Islamic Taliban broke out on the outskirts of the western Afghan city of Herat.

Officials and residents reported clashes in the outskirts of Herat.

Hundreds of people fled their homes to seek shelter near the city center.

As announced by Herat's governor Abdul Saboor Kani, most of the fighting took place in the districts of Indjil and Gusara.

"We are careful to avoid civilian casualties," Kani said.

The government troops also launched an air raid on a small hospital in the southern city of Laschkar Gah in Helmand province on Saturday.

According to official information, the hospital had previously been captured by the Taliban to care for the injured.

According to a official, one person was killed in the attacks and the hospital was destroyed.

Since the start of the withdrawal of international troops, the Taliban have conquered large parts of the country in the Hindu Kush.

Since this week, the Islamists and government troops have been fighting in the outskirts of Herat, the third largest city in Afghanistan with 600,000 inhabitants.

kry / AFP / Reuters