January 15, 2008
Blast at Kabul Hotel Kills 6
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomb attack on Monday evening at a Kabul luxury hotel frequented by foreigners killed at least six people, including an American and a Norwegian journalist, and appears to be one of the most brazen assaults by the Taliban in the heavily protected heart of the Afghan capital, officials said.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the intended target had been the Norwegian foreign minister, who was meeting at the hotel at the time but was not hurt.
The attackers walked into the Serena Hotel, the only five-star hotel in Afghanistan, around 6 p.m. and set off a bomb that was heard two miles away. The explosion was followed by gunfire, according to Ezmary Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.
Six people were wounded, including two foreigners, he said. Most of the victims were staff members and guards at the hotel, which is popular among diplomats and is often used for conferences. A Seattle woman who was in the hotel said she saw a body and pools of blood in the lobby, The Associated Press reported.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was carried out by four militants and was aimed at foreigners.
The Afghan government did not dispute that claim on Monday night, but provided no further details. Mr. Bashary described the assault as a "rare type of attack and a new tactic."
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for hundreds of suicide attacks in Afghanistan since the American-led coalition drove them from power in 2001, but most have been aimed at Afghan and foreign military forces. The attack on Monday was the first on a Kabul hotel.
In Washington, two State Department officials said at least one American was among the dead, The A.P. reported. The victim's identity was being withheld until relatives could be notified.
A journalist from the Oslo daily newspaper Dagbladet, Carsten Thomassen, 38, was killed, the newspaper's Web site reported.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said, "The man who carried out the blessed duty was from southeastern province of Khost, and his name was Farooq." Three other militants who accompanied the bomber burst into the hotel firing guns and managed to escape, Mr. Mujahid said.
Hundreds of Afghan police officers blocked main roads around the hotel, and dozens of American soldiers were seen at the site helping Afghan security forces.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Mr. Ban said he was "very much surprised by this terrorist attack against the foreign minister of Norway." He did not say why he thought the minister was the target but called the attack "a serious crime against humanity."
Al Qaeda, a Taliban ally, has previously called on its supporters to carry out attacks against Norway because it participated in the invasion of Afghanistan. Norway has 500 peacekeepers stationed in the country.
Norway's foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was attending a meeting in the hotel basement, told Norwegian reporters that everyone was ordered to lie on the floor, according to The A.P. "Our security guards undertook an armed evacuation, where we went from corner to corner in the cellar until we reached a safe area," Mr. Stoere said.
The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said the attack "underscores the reason we have to stay on the offense against the extremists in places like Kabul but also in other places around the world," The A.P. said.
Suzanne Griffin, 62, a Seattle resident who works with the aid agency Save the Children, said she was in the hotel gym's locker room when the attack began. "Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it," she told The A.P. "It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling. We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass and huddled on the floor."
Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Graham Bowley from New York.