At least three rockets hit Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan overnight, on Sunday, as the Taliban pressed on with their sweeping offensive across the country.
"Last night three rockets were fired at the airport and two of them hit the runway... Due to this all flights from the airport have been cancelled," airport chief Massoud Pashtun told AFP.
Moreover, Pashtun said work to repair the runway was underway and expected the airport to be operational later on Sunday. An official at the civil aviation authority in Kabul confirmed the attack.
The attack on the airport came as the Taliban inched closer to overrunning two other provincial capital, Herat in the west and Lashkar Gah in the south.
"Kandahar airport was targeted by us because the enemy were using it as a centre to conduct air strikes against us," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, told Reuters.
The rocket attack forced Afghan authorities to suspend all flights as the runway was partially damaged. There were no immediate reports of casualties, according to officials.
In order to curb Taliban advance, Afghanistan has imposed a night curfew on 31 provinces of the country’s 34 provinces under deteriorating security.
Eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Panjshir as well as Kabul province, where the national capital Kabul city is located, were not included in the restriction.
A source said that the decision was made to check the infiltration of Taliban militants to provincial capitals, as Taliban militants have besieged several Afghan cities across the country and overrun dozens of districts in recent months.
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