Afghan police yesterday ended an all-night Taliban siege of a guesthouse owned by a prominent political family, the latest attack on a venue frequented by foreigners in the heart of Kabul.
The standoff finished at daybreak with all four attackers killed, a government minister said, reporting no civilian or military casualties.
“Four attackers who had one RPG launcher, three AK-47s and one grenade launcher were killed in Wazir Akbar Khan,” Afghan Deputy Minister of the Interior Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said on Twitter.
Photo: AP
The assault was claimed by the Taliban and came amid intensified fighting across many parts of Afghanistan since the insurgents launched their annual warm weather offensive a month ago.
A Taliban attack on a guesthouse in another part of the capital earlier this month left 14 people dead, including nine foreigners.
Sporadic blasts were heard hours after the raid began in the upmarket neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan, home to several foreign embassies and a prime target for attacks.
“The attackers who wanted to enter the guesthouse used grenades, but Afghan police used special tactics to kill them,” Kabul police chief General Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters.
The attackers apparently attempted to enter the hotel by firing a rocket-propelled grenade at its heavy steel front gate. Part of the gate was burned, but it was not damaged enough to allow the militants entry.
Police and a paramilitary Crisis Response Unit surrounded the area, blocked roads, took up positions on rooftops and parked armored personnel vehicles in the streets around the guesthouse.
Police officers smashed lights throughout the neighborhood to cover their movements and then apparently waited for daylight to identify and move in on their targets.
Fire trucks and police vehicles were seen around the guesthouse yesterday morning, where broken glass and bullet-riddled walls bore witness to the night’s carnage.
Witnesses said the insurgents had seized a guard room near the front entrance, but did not manage to progress further.
“The attackers took over a guard room at the gate and were throwing grenades toward the hotel and security forces around them,” said Shafiqullah, a local resident.
The manager of the Heetal Hotel, owned by the family of Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Salahuddin Rabbani and popular with foreigners, said all the guests were in safe rooms and no one was hurt.
“Heetal is very well fortified. After one or two initial explosions, our guards started firing on attackers who were unable to get inside,” manager Beizhan said by telephone from inside the guesthouse.
The Heetal was damaged in 2009 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the gate, killing eight people and wounding another 40.
The surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan. In the first four months of this year, civilian casualties jumped 16 percent from the same period last year, it said.
Additional reporting by AP
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