Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a guesthouse used by UN staff in the heart of Kabul early yesterday, killing nine people — including six UN staff. Three attackers were also killed.
It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine the Nov. 7 presidential runoff.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the early morning assaults, which also included rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city’s main luxury hotel. He said three militants with suicide vests, grenades and machine guns carried out the guesthouse assault.
The attack on the guesthouse sent people running and screaming outside, with some jumping out upper-story windows to escape a fire that broke out. One US man said he held off the assailants with a Kalashnikov rifle until guests were able to escape.
One rocket struck the “outer limit” of the presidential palace but caused no casualties, presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said. Two more rockets slammed into the grounds of the Serena Hotel, which is favored by many foreigners.
One failed to explode but filled the hotel lobby with smoke, forcing guests and employees to flee to the basement, said an Afghan witness who asked that his name not be used for security reasons.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as “an inhuman act” and called on the army and police to strengthen security around all international institutions.
An official with the UN election team said that the guesthouse was home to the largest concentration of UN election workers in the city. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke anonymously, did not give a specific number of election workers staying there, but said it was around 20.
Interior Ministry officials said the attackers were wearing old-style police uniforms, which are available in markets.
UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said six UN staff were killed and nine other UN employees were wounded in the assault, which began about dawn in the Shar-e-Naw area of the city. One of the six UN dead was an American, the US embassy said.
Afghan police and UN officials said three attackers, two security guards and an Afghan civilian were also killed.
The chief of the UN mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack “will not deter the UN from continuing all its work” in the country.
Also See: Karzai’s brother on CIA payroll
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary