Today, Sunday, 3 missiles fell on Kandahar Airport (southern Afghanistan), at a time when battles are taking place between the Taliban and Afghan forces in the vicinity of the city, and the bombing has disrupted the airport's movement.

On the other hand, the Interior Ministry said that Afghan forces repelled Taliban attacks on the cities of Kandahar, Lashkar Gah and Herat, and killed dozens in a raid on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah.

The head of Kandahar airport, Masoud Pashtun, said that two of the three missiles that targeted the airport on Friday hit the runway, and as a result, all flights to and from the airport were canceled.

Pashton added to Agence France-Presse that the damages resulting from the bombing are currently being repaired, and the airport is expected to resume its activities later today.

Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a government official as saying that the bombing did not cause material or human losses.

For weeks, there have been battles between Afghan forces and the Taliban in the vicinity of Kandahar, which is the capital of Kandahar Province and is located next to Pakistan.

cable grapple

The attack on the airport comes at a time when the Taliban are seeking to control two provincial capitals, Herat (west) and Lashkar Gah (south), and Interior Ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai said - in a statement - that his country's forces repelled Taliban attacks on Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat the day before yesterday evening.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense said this morning that 51 Taliban - including leaders - were killed and 40 others wounded in an operation by Afghan forces in the outskirts of Lashkar Gah yesterday.

The ministry added in a tweet that weapons and ammunition were destroyed during the operation.

51 #Taliban terrorists including 2 of their commanders were killed & 40 others wounded in joint operations conducted by #ANDSF with support from #AAF at the outskirts of #Lashkargah, #Helamd provincial center, yesterday.

Also, some amount of their weapons & amos were destroyed.

pic.twitter.com/K4gikzxHV7

— Ministry of Defense, Afghanistan (@MoDAfghanistan) August 1, 2021

She said that 131 Taliban militants were killed, 62 wounded and 5 arrested in security operations carried out by Afghan forces in several areas during the past 24 hours, and confirmed that 9 improvised explosive devices were found and dismantled.

Battle of Herat

On Friday evening, it was reported that Taliban fighters were at the gates of Herat, the third largest city in the country, with a population of about two million people. At least 200 elements of the movement in air and ground attacks.

In the same context, Herat Provincial Council member Ahmed Karkhi told Anadolu Agency that there is still an atmosphere of fear and anxiety across the city of Herat.

For its part, the Taliban claimed that they had captured Karkh and Ghozara districts in Herat province, and Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense that dozens of Afghan special forces had arrived in Herat province to repel the attacks of Taliban militants and prevent them from storming the city of Herat.

#Urgent


Moments ago, the security chief of Helmand state, under the puppet administration (Khaled Wardak), was injured during the battles taking place in the city of Lashkargah, the center of the state.

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— Islamic Emirate (@alemara_ar) July 31, 2021

The Taliban intensified their attacks in the past few weeks with the start of the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan last May and is expected to be completed at the end of this month. The movement has controlled large areas in the recent period, including border areas and many border crossings.

On the other hand, the Afghan forces launched attacks to stop the progress of the Taliban, and the battles are concentrated in the south and west, and the escalation of battles comes in light of the stalled peace negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban under the auspices of Qatar and the United Nations.

United nations

In a related context, the spokesman for the political office of the Taliban, Muhammad Naeem, said yesterday that a delegation from the movement met with Steve Brooking, deputy head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, to discuss the bombing of the main office of the mission in Herat province, which was the attack by RPGs. RPG) on Friday, killing an Afghan policeman and wounding others, and the bombing took place during clashes between the Taliban and Afghan forces.

Naim added in a series of tweets yesterday, Saturday, that the Taliban "is committed to providing security for the United Nations and all public institutions and facilities in the areas under their control," noting that the UN mission will share maps and information about its offices with the Taliban so that security measures can be taken in a better way.

Afghanistan has been suffering a war since 2001, when an international military coalition led by Washington overthrew the Taliban regime, because it was linked at the time to al-Qaeda, which adopted the September 11 attacks of the same year in the United States.