Gunmen Attack Afghanistan’s Main Airport in Kabul, AP Reports

By Eltaf Najafizada

Gunmen have attacked Kabul airport in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported, citing a military official.

The militants have taken over two buildings near the airport and are using it as a base to fire rockets, the AP cited Afzal Aman, a general in the Afghan army, as saying. Two attackers were killed by Afghan forces, according to the report.

Today’s assault is the second major militant raid in Afghanistan after the U.S. brokered a deal to audit votes in a disputed presidential election. Forty two people were killed in a suicide attack at a crowded market in the eastern part of the nation on July 15.

Afghan civilian casualties rose 24 percent in the first half of 2014 from a year earlier, the United Nations reported this month, as the nation prepares for its first transfer of power since the U.S invasion in 2001. Both candidates vying to replace President Hamid Karzai have vowed to sign a pact that would keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond this year.

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 9,800 by the end of this year, with only a small force at the embassy by the end of 2016, when he will be preparing to leave office.