Afghanistan: Rockets hit Kandahar airport, all flights cancelled

The Afghanistan government has closed the Kandahar airport. A report from Kabul said that at least three rockets were fired at the airport and two of them hit the runway on Saturday night. Due to this all flights from the airport have been cancelled," airport chief Massoud Pashtun said to an agency. Pashtun said work to repair the runway was underway and expected the airport to be operational later on Sunday. Kandahar's air base is vital to providing the logistics and air support needed to keep the militants from overrunning Afghanistan's second-biggest city. The attack on the airport came as the Taliban inched closer to overrunning two other provincial capitals -- Herat in the west and Lashkar Gah in the south. 

The government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban's steady territorial gains over the summer as lacking strategic value. Since the withdrawal of the US troops, the Taliban have made rapid gains in rural areas of Afghanistan. However, lately, the Taliban, backed by Pakistan Army, is also taking over important districts and urban centres, creating a ground for further escalations in a country that is already ravaged by decades of war. The onslaught of the Taliban has fuelled fears of the worst humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.