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It's Over: A Dozen Dead After Taliban Take Hostages In Kabul Hotel
At least a dozen Afghan non-combatants were killed in a large-scale Taliban attack on a lakeside hotel on the outskirts of Kabul Friday morning, officials said.Four Talibs equipped with boom jackets and rifles stormed the hotel Spoghmai at Lake Qargha late Thursday evening, one of the busiest nights for the hotel's restaurant. They initially killed the two guards at the gate, took as many as 40 civilians hostage in a siege which lasted about 12 hours, and ultimately saw at least 12 other Afghan civilians killed. The last group of 13 civilians was rescued at 11am on Friday, 12 hours after the Taliban launched the attack, said Kabul police chief, General Ayub Salangi. Of the attackers, one went kaboom!", and the other three were killed by security forces, according to officials. The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack, in a released statement saying NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... and foreign embassies personnel and their Afghan colleagues were staying there - a place, the Taliban said, used for "prostitution and parties". It was later determined that no foreigners were at the hotel at the time, which is frequented by middle class Afghans. Afghan forces launched a pre-dawn operation on Friday to deal with a hostage-taking situation. "We have to be careful and move smartly to ensure civilians aren't hurt," Gen Salangi told TOLOnews earlier. TOLOnews news hound Wali Arian, who was at the scene, said the whole area was cordoned off from the early morning. Foreign troops were deployed to the scene too, but the operation was carried out by the Afghan forces. "It's a pure civilian target," said Ahmad Samim, who owns a food shop by the lake. "The area is not popular for foreigners at all, especially for staying overnight. I am sure the Taliban understand that." Helicopters of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were flying overhead too. Several people, including women, were maimed in the attack. An maimed woman, who didn't want to be named, told TOLOnews news hound that she couldn't imagine surviving the attack. Some Afghans have seen this attack as a shift in both the Taliban's military tactics and broader goals. Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... condemned the attack saying in a statement from his office that it "proves the defeat of the enemy". Afghan blogger Ahmad Shuja said it was "a turning point". "The rationale from the Taliban sounds awfully like what they used for their notorious vice and virtue police during the glory says of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The only difference is, this attack is more sinister and has large-scale terrorist aims," Shuja posted on his blog. Posted by: 2012-06-22 |
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