A brazen Taliban attack on Kabul airport ended Thursday morning more than four hours after it began after all the insurgents involved were killed, officials said.
Gul Agha Hashimi, a senior police official, said: "The attack is over, and the area is cleared from the insurgents. All the insurgents who were holed up in an under-construction building were killed."
Earlier, the interior ministry said a group of insurgents had opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades after seizing a building under construction at the airport.
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The airport lies next to a sprawling military base run by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, whose troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan after more than a decade of war, as the country lies in the grip of a power struggle following disputed presidential elections.
ISAF and Afghan military helicopters were seen hovering over the area during Thursday's attack, which came after a devastating suicide bombing at a busy market in southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday killed at least 42 people.
Pictures purporting to capture the impact of the attack on the surrounding area have surfaced on social media.
