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Kabul • Taliban militants killed more than 50 people at an airport in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar late Tuesday and Wednesday during an audacious 20-hour assault, just as diplomatic efforts to revive peace talks between the Islamist insurgents and the Afghan government picked up momentum.
The attack began late Tuesday afternoon when a group of Taliban suicide bombers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and hand grenades broke through a main entrance of the airport, said Gen. Abdul Razaq Sherzai, the Afghan air force commander in Kandahar province.
For hours, Afghan forces at the combined military and civilian airport battled Taliban fighters who had taken family members of Afghan troops hostage in a residential area. The sprawling airport is also used by U.S. troops and is a hub of CIA operations, but there is no indication that any Americans were killed or injured in the fighting.
Late Wednesday, Afghan officials said at least 50 people, including women and children, had been killed along with all 14 attackers.
As Afghan troops struggled to defend Kandahar airport, they relied on help from U.S. forces. Coalition officials declined to discuss the specifics of their engagement in the clashes.
It was the biggest strike by the militants since late September when they seized the northern city of Kunduz and held it for days. That was the largest city captured by the Taliban since the radical Islamist movement was driven from power in Kabul in November 2001 by Afghan opposition forces and U.S. airstrikes.
The attack comes amid reports of infighting among Taliban leaders. The Afghan government said last week that the Taliban's new leader, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, was wounded in internal fighting in the Pakistani city of Quetta. A Taliban spokesman denied the report.
In the past, the militants have launched attacks on at least two airports. The most devastating assault was carried out in 2012 when Taliban combatants wearing U.S. military uniforms stormed Camp Bastion in neighboring Helmand province, destroying aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars.