 "The gunmen were targeting residential blocks housing govt employees & the joint Afghan-NATO military base at the airport.")
Taliban militants stormed the airport complex in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar city today, triggering gunfights and explosions as a conference kicked off in Pakistan with hopes of reviving peace talks with the insurgents.
There was no immediate information on casualties in the ongoing attack, the second major assault in a span of 24 hours in the city recognised as the birthplace of the Taliban.
Taliban gunmen were targeting residential blocks housing government employees and the joint Afghan-NATO military base at the airport, said Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor.
"Several insurgents managed to breach the first gate of the complex," he told AFP, as the battles continued.
"They have taken up position in a school inside the complex."
Local residents, who were told to hunker down in their homes, reported loud explosions and a heavy volley of gunfire.
Mohammad Mohsin Sultani, the military spokesman in Kandahar, Afghan troops were engaged in a heavy firefight to beat back the attackers, although their exact numbers were unclear.
The Taliban appear to be ramping up attacks on government and foreign targets despite the onset of the harsh winter season, when the fighting usually winds down.
Today's attack comes after days of fevered speculation about the fate of Taliban Mullah Akhtar Mansour following reports that he was critically wounded in an internal firefight.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for today's attack, which comes on the eve of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's high-profile visit to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia regional conference.
"A number of martyrdom seekers armed with heavy and light weapons entered Kandahar airbase undetected and have begun engaging the large number of foreign invaders and their hirelings inside," the Islamist group said on their website.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter claimed that "150 Afghan and foreign soldiers" had been killed in the fierce fighting.
The insurgents are regularly known to exaggerate battlefield claims.
Ghani's willingness to visit longtime regional nemesis Pakistan for the conference has signalled a renewed push to jumpstart peace talks with the Taliban.
"It has become a familiar pattern. Whenever there is talk about peace talks, the Taliban launch big attacks," Kabul-based military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhil told AFP.
