Afghan commando forces have ended an overnight siege at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel that resulted in the deaths of all five heavily armed assailants and six guests, including a female foreign national, officials said Sunday.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, told VOA the last surviving attacker blew himself up around 11 a.m. local time, setting ablaze the sixth floor where he had been holed up.
Security forces were going room by room before formally declaring the building cleared of any remaining suspects, he added.
Rahimi said seven people, including three security personnel, were wounded and more than 161 guests, including 41 foreigners, were rescued. International forces reportedly assisted Afghan partners in dealing with the attack.
The Taliban insurgency claimed five of its suicide bombers carried out the assault, which they said targeted a meeting of Afghan and American security officials, inflicting heavy casualties on them. The Taliban often inflates its casualty claims.
But some Afghan journalists who visited the site of the attack Sunday reported via social media they saw dozens of bodies inside the hotel. Officials have not yet commented on these claims.
Saturday night attack
The siege began Saturday night around 9 p.m. when the gunmen wearing army uniforms and suicide vests stormed the hotel kitchen. They then moved into conference halls and other floors of the building while shooting at guests.
The Interior Ministry in a statement issued Sunday claimed the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network of terrorists plotted the violence.
Afghan and U.S. officials have long alleged Haqqanis operate out of sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charges.
The Pakistani foreign ministry condemned the hotel siege as a “brutal terrorist attack.”
“The government and the people of Pakistan convey solidarity and support with the government and people of Afghanistan at this dastardly terrorist attack. We convey our deepest sympathies for those who have lost their loved ones,” the ministry said in a statement issued Sunday.
Embassy security alert
The American Embassy in Afghanistan had issued a security alert Jan. 18 about potential hotel attacks.
“We are aware of reports that extremist groups may be planning an attack against hotels in Kabul,” the alert said. It also advised people to “keep a low profile ... carry a charged cell phone” ...and “stay alert in locations frequented by tourists/Westerners.”
The luxury Intercontinental Hotel sits at the top of a Kabul hill and is heavily guarded because it has come under attack before. It was the target of a suicide assault in 2011 that killed at least 20 people. The Taliban also took responsibility for that attack.
Meanwhile, officials in northern province of Balkh confirmed to VOA Sunday an overnight Taliban ambush killed at least 16 pro-government forces.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed the insurgent group carried out the attack, saying a Taliban sympathizer among the Afghan forces had facilitated the attack. Mujahid said the clash killed at least 18 government forces and a Taliban fighter.
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