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Anti-missile system put up at Kabul airport to repel Taliban rockets

Taliban fighters do not have any organised capacity but have demonstrated they can fire modified rockets from vehicles and create panic, a security official says.

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Afghan officials have not offered details about the type of missile system and who had installed it.

Afghan authorities said they have installed an anti-missile system at Kabul airport to counter incoming rockets, as the Taliban pressed on with a blistering offensive across the country.

"The newly installed air defence system has been operational in Kabul since 2:00 AM Sunday," the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"The system has proven useful in the world in repelling rocket and missile attacks."

Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told AFP news agency it had been installed at the airport, though officials did not offer details about the type of system or who had installed it.

But Afghan security forces spokesman Ajmal Omar Shinwari said the system was given by "our foreign friends".

"It has very complicated technology. For now our foreign friends are operating it while we are trying to build the capacity to use it," he said.

US-led forces to vacate

Washington and its allies are due to end their military mission in Afghanistan at the end of next month, even as the insurgents say they now control 85 percent of the country –– a claim that could not be independently verified and is disputed by the government.

Taliban's rapid gains in recent weeks have raised fears about the security of the capital and its airport, with NATO keen to secure a vital exit route to the outside world for foreign diplomats and aid workers.

The Taliban have regularly launched rockets and mortars at government forces across the countryside, with Daesh carrying out similar strikes on the capital in 2020.

Daesh also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack this year at Bagram Airbase, the biggest US military facility in the country, which was recently handed over to Afghan forces.

Missiles to counter Taliban's modified rockets

Over the years, the US military installed several C-RAMs (Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar Systems) across its bases, including at Bagram, to destroy incoming rockets targeting the facilities, a foreign security official and media reports said.

The C-RAMS includes cameras to detect incoming rockets and alert local forces.

"The Taliban do not have any organised capacity but have demonstrated that they can fire modified rockets from vehicles and create panic, especially if aimed at an airport," a foreign security official said.

Turkey has promised to provide security for Kabul airport once US and NATO troops leave next month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey and the United States had agreed on the "scope" of how the airport would be managed under the control of Turkish forces.

Taliban has waged a rapid offensive across the country, but mostly in the northern and western provinces, since early May, when the final US troops began leaving Afghanistan.

Pakistan warns against using militias

After Kabul called on militiamen across the country to help counter attacks, Afghan security spokesman Shinwari on Sunday urged Afghan youths to join the armed forces –– saying the authorities had made recruitment procedures easier.

However, Pakistan's envoy to Kabul called on the international community to help strengthen Afghanistan's security forces, warning that deploying militias to fight the Taliban could worsen the situation in the violence-wracked country and benefit militant groups.

"If the situation continues to worsen and deteriorate in Afghanistan, of course, there will be challenges in terms of security inside of Afghanistan," Mansoor Ahmad Khan told AFP on Saturday, saying it could give space to groups like Daesh or Al Qaeda.

The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban's gains as having little strategic value, but the seizure of multiple border crossings and the taxes they generate will likely fill the group's coffers with new revenue.

The insurgents have routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the government holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air.

SOURCE: AFP