More than 30 civilians killed in attack at Afghanistan's Kandahar airport

Battles between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters raged for 27 hours, leaving 38 civilians, 10 Afghan soldiers and two Afghan policemen dead, the Defense Ministry said in statement. Afghan officials frequently blame Pakistan for unrest.

Nine Afghan Taliban militants have died.

The sprawling airport, known as Kandahar Air Field, has a military and a civilian section, as well as a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base.

The is only the latest in a series of battlefield victories by the Taliban who briefly seized the northern city of Kunduz in September.

The attack came as representatives from more than two dozen countries met in neighbouring Pakistan at a one-day conference on improving security in Afghanistan, more than 14 years after the US-led military invasion.

A spokesman for NATO's Resolute Support mission said there had been no reports of casualties among the hundreds of global personnel on the base but he had no other details.

U.S. Army Col. Michael Lawhorn said the Taliban "never physically entered the airfield" in Kandahar, but fired toward the air base from positions inside a nearby school.

After years of costly involvement, most North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops pulled back from the front lines by the end of 2014, although a residual force of around 13,000 remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

The militant attack on the marketplace killed at least 30 people, according to news media reports.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying on that "150 Afghan and foreign soldiers" had been killed in the fierce fighting.

As worldwide military forces have withdrawn most of their troops from the country, the Afghan security forces have been stretched by a stubborn insurgency.

Ghani's willingness to visit longtime nemesis Pakistan for the Heart of Asia conference has signalled a renewed push to jumpstart peace talks with the Taliban, despite a spike in cross-border tensions.

Early on Wednesday, officials also said that the siege was over, but witnesses told Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy, reporting from the Afghan capital Kabul, that at least three attackers were still holding about 10 people hostage on Wednesday evening.

There was some uncertainty over the exact casualty figures with security forces hunting as many as five insurgents who had survived hours of fighting.

The violence has also spilled over into Pakistan. "This damages all the prospects for peace, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said of the announcement".