When asked whether US-led forces controlled the airport, Major Morris Goins, operations officer for the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division said: "We own part of it".

More than 1,000 US troops were active in and around the airport, he added.

An AFP correspondent near the scene said he saw a large breach in the airport wall through which heavy military equipment could move in.

Witnesses had earlier reported that the airport had come under heavy artillery fire, leaving dozens killed and injured.

SPACE.WIRE