Khwaja Rawash Airport beter bekend als (Luchthaven) Kandahar International (IATA KDH) ligt op ongeveer 16 km Zuid-oost van  Kandahar in Zuid-Afghanistan. De luchthaven is door de Amerikanen gebouwd in de jaren 60 en in de periode 1970-1979 aangepast tot haar huidige vorm.

Door de internationale sancties onder het Taliban-bewind was het vliegveld vrijwel helemaal gesloten en waren er slechts paar internationale vluchten. Nadat de Verenigde Staten de aanval op Afghanistan inzetten na 11 september 2001, is het vliegveld weer geopend. Eerst was het alleen toegankelijk voor militaire toestellen, maar nadat begin 2002 de sancties van de Verenigde Naties waren opgeheven konden ook civiele luchtvaartmaatschappijen weer van het vliegveld gebruik maken. Belgische militairen verzorgen sedert 2003 de bewaking van het vliegveld en US militairen zorgen voor de luchtverkeersleiding.

Kandahar International Airport (more commonly known as Kandahar Airport (IATA KDH)  and local  as Khwaja Rawash Airport) is located 10 miles south-east of Kandahar City in South Afghanistan. The airport was built by the US in the 1960's as International Development program. It may have been intended to be used as a possible US military base in case the United States and former USSR went to war. It was occupied by the Soviets in 1979 and was severely damaged during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 80s. It received further damages again during the US raids in October 2001 when the Taliban government was being removed. As of 2007, Kandahar Airport has been rebuilt and is used for both military and civilian flights. Since 2006 the airfield has been maintained by the Canadians, but there are also other NATO forces present. It is sometimes difficult to locate the airport from the sky during day-time because of lack of contrast with the ground and the usual dust or haze in the area but during night time the runway is well lit up.

The airfield itself was built between 1956 and 1962 by American in the typical U.S. architecture of that time.  It's original purpose was as a refueling stop for long-range piston engined aircraft traveling between the Middle East and Southeast Asia. However, with the advent of jet aircraft, such stops were no longer necessary, and the airport saw little use. Since the airport was designed as a military base, it is more likely that the United States intended to use it as such in case there was a show-down of war between the United States and former USSR. While the United States was busy building Kandahar Airport, the USSR was busy in the north building Kabul Airport.

Soviet era:       During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the airfield was used intensively by the Soviet Air Forces, both as logistical facility for flying in troops and supplies and as a base for launching airstrikes against local Mujahideen groups.  Fighting in the Kandahar area was particularly intense. However Kandahar airport was left relatively untouched and its main building was largely intact at the end of the war. The airstrip did suffer extensive damage that was subsequently repaired by the United Nations in in the mid 1990s to support humanitarian flights. >>>>