Six UN staff dead in Taliban raid on Kabul hostel

by Sharif Khorram Sharif Khorram –

October 28, 2009

KABUL (AFP) –

Taliban suicide gunmen stormed a UN hostel in Kabul on Wednesday, killing six foreign staff in an assault the Taliban Movement said marked the start of a bloody countdown to new Afghan elections.

Police said a search of the UN-approved Bekhtar Guesthouse had turned up a charred, unidentified body in one of the rooms. Two security personnel were also killed, bringing the total death toll to nine.

Another nine UN staff were wounded as gunfire and explosions rang out across the city in a smart residential district near Butcher Street close to popular shopping streets favoured by Westerners.

Taliban fighters also fired rockets at the luxury Serena Hotel, which is popular with diplomats and foreign businessmen. No casualties were immediately reported, Afghan police said. Recent attacks in Kabul

Officials said three gunmen entered the hostel in Kabul's Shar-e-Now district around dawn. Flames and heavy black smoke spewed into the sky as the security services closed off roads and surrounded the building. Eyewitness accounts of the scene

The trio were shot dead after a two-hour standoff, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said, after the latest of a series of brazen raids in the heavily guarded capital city.

"Three suicide bombers have been killed during the police operation, they were armed suicide bombers," Bashary said.

UN spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed that six international UN staff were killed. "We have nine injured, some of them seriously," he added.

One police officer and one intelligence officer had also been killed, an Afghan soldier at the site of the attack said.

A police officer said that one of the gunmen involved in the attack detonated an explosives vest before the other attackers fled into the apartment building in the crowded neighbourhood.

Another policeman on the ground said there had been a huge blast inside the guesthouse.

Police jeeps with mounted machine-guns and fire engines were seen racing through the streets of the capital, an AFP photographer said.

The new bloodshed came with tensions rising in Afghanistan ahead of the scheduled presidential run-off between Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah, following a fraud-tainted first round in August.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said the militia, which was driven from power in a US-led invasion eight years ago, claimed responsibility for the guesthouse raid.

Three militants wearing suicide vests packed with explosives and armed with automatic weapons were involved in the attack, Mujahed said.

"This is the first step, as we have warned that we will disrupt the second round of the elections," he told AFP by telephone an undisclosed location.

The Taliban have called for a boycott of the November 7 ballot, threatening violent consequences for anyone who votes. Article: Doubts over Afghan run-off

Almost 200 violent incidents around the first vote were attributed to the Taliban, including amputations of fingers marked with purple ink as proof of voting, and rocket and grenade attacks on polling stations.

The attack came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton kicked off a surprise visit to neighbouring Pakistan, seeking to bolster the nuclear-armed state on the frontlines of the struggle against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

After an exhaustive review of war strategy, President Barack Obama may select a plan to secure 10 major Afghan population centres rather than going for an all-out military push, the New York Times reported.