Afghanistan installs air defence system at airport
‘The system has proven useful in repelling rocket and missile atacks. For now our foreign friends are operating it while we are trying to build the capacity to use it,’ says official
Afghan authorities said on Sunday 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 2:00am Sunday,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
“The system has proven useful in the world in repelling rocket and missile atacks.”
Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian sais 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.
“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.
The vast majority are in neighbouring Pakistan, followed by Iran, and Europe.
While more than 570 Afghan refugees voluntarily returned to the country between January and March this year, aided by the UN, just six came from outside Pakistan and Iran, according to data from the UN’S refugee agency.
This year, several EU countries agreed to offer asylum to Afghans who worked with foreign troops and are at risk of retaliatory atacks from the Taliban.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi last month said Europe should brace for a fresh inflow of migrants from Afghanistan ater foreign forces leave the country.
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 per cent of the country -- a claim that could not be independently verified and is disputed by the government.
The militant group’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 the Daesh militant carrying out similar strikes on the capital in 2020.
Daesh also claimed responsibility for a rocket atack this year at Bagram Air base, the biggest US military facility in the country, which was recently handed over to Afghan forces.
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.
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 militants have 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.
Last week Russia announced it had closed its consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-iSharif, while China also evacuated 210 nationals from the country.
Ater Kabul called on militiamen across the country to help counter atacks, Afghan security spokesman Shinwari on Sunday urged Afghan youths to join the armed forces -- saying the authorities had made recruitment procedures easier.the Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban’s gains as having litle 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 litle more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air.