KABUL: In a bid to attack Nato’s airport headquarters, seven Taliban insurgents launched an attack near the Kabul airport on early Monday with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb, Afghan police said.
However, in the subsequent gunbattle between police and militants, all seven Taliban insurgents were killed, Afghan police said, adding that no civilian and security force casualties had yet been reported.
An airport official said that the airport was closed to all civilian air traffic because of the attack. It was unclear if the attack had damaged facilities inside the airport itself.
“Their target is unclear because they are at a distance from the airport. We have lots of installations in that area,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. “They seem to be trying to hit anything they can.”
Sediqi said two civilians were wounded.
Deputy Kabul police chief Dawood Amin says there were seven attackers. Two blew themselves up with suicide vests and five were shot and killed by police.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the insurgents were targeting Nato.
Kabul police said that attackers wearing suicide vests had occupied one or two buildings under construction on the west side of the airport and were firing at the military facility, which was quite a distance away. But it was uncertain if they actually managed to hit anything inside the airport.
