Afghan rebels say four Taliban fighters killed in rare operation against Kabul airport

Three missile rounds strike Taliban headquarters and parked military helicopters at Kabul airport

Afghan security personnel stand guard at the Kabul airport (AFP via Getty Images)

Four Taliban fighters were killed and three others were injured in an attack on Kabul international airport on Monday by the country’s National Resistance Front which has been targeting the Taliban.

The NRF, led by politician Ahmad Massoud, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks on Monday in a statement. The NRF and another group, the Afghanistan Freedom Front, are former security personnel from the previous Western-backed government.

“The freedom fighters of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan targeted the Taliban terrorist air forces stationed in the military section of Kabul airport with a missile attack, resulting in 4 Taliban terrorists killed and 3 other terrorists injured,” the NRF said.

“This attack was carried out at 6.40pm today, Monday, 26 February, 2024, with the firing of 3 missile rounds at the terrorists’ headquarters and military helicopters,” it said on X, formerly Twitter.

However, the Taliban’s spokesperson for Kabul police denied any attack on the airport without providing any evidence.

“There is no truth to the false claim of a missile attack on Kabul International Airport. Alhamdulillah, there was no security incident in Kabul today,” spokesperson Khalid Zadran said.

The resistance front is a prominent group of fighters dismantling the Taliban’s forces and their hold on Afghanistan in 20 out of 34 provinces, seen as a primary opponent of the hardline Islamist regime.

NRF chief Ahmad Massoud confirmed the bid to scale up the front’s attacks on the Taliban to The Independent.

“I will definitely not tell you what my forces are doing as we speak, or what the world is going to see in the coming days. But let’s just say the NRF is defending our Afghan people, giving them a fighting chance and a hope to defend themselves,” he said.

An aide says the NRF has killed hundreds of Taliban militants since August 2021, and that the war of resistance continues to be waged despite the interest of the international community having shifted to conflicts elsewhere, such as the wars taking place in Ukraine and Gaza.

“We are arranging 15 to 20 military operations per month in regions occupied by Taliban, and in each of these, we are able to kill three to eight of their terrorists,” the aide told The Independent.

After the Taliban took over most of Afghanistan, the NRF retreated to a mountainous and remote valley in Panjshir province after the takeover, with Panjshir the last province to hold out against the Taliban as they swept through Afghanistan.