MOSCOW, June 10 (RIA Novosti) - Explosions and ensuing gunfight broke off near the Kabul International Airport early on Monday morning after militants seized a nearby building under construction, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Militants numbered four or five or six seized an under-construction building in Qasaba, a residential area in northern part of Kabul airport at around 04:30 a.m. local time and launched rocket propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the airport,” the agency cited an unnamed security official as saying.
There were no immediate reports on the casualties in the attack on the airport, which is both civilian and military and also hosts a large base for the US-led NATO coalition.
Al Jazeera reported that the Taliban claimed the responsibility for the attack saying that their target was the military airport. Security forces were engaged in gunfire with militants holed up in the building, the agency added.
The radical Islamic Taliban group, which was toppled in a 2001 U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, stages regular attacks on provincial government officials, police and civilians and plants roadside bombs to target Afghan, US and NATO troops.
International troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, handing over responsibility for security in Afghanistan to local police and military.
