18 people killed in Afghanistan hotel seige

A soldier from NATO-led forces, center, is seen outside the Spozhmai hotel on Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed almost two dozen people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, June, 22, 2012. / AP

Updated at 7:09 a.m. Eastern.

(AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - Heavily armed Taliban insurgents killed 18 people — most of them civilians — in an attack Friday on a lakeside hotel just north of Kabul, Afghan officials said

Insurgents first killed the security guards at the hotel, then stormed inside it and began firing at guests who were dining. Some of the guests escaped while others were held hostage as the attackers battled Afghan security forces who rushed to the scene for the next 12 hours. Kabul police said all five attackers had been shot and killed by midday Friday, ending the standoff.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident, the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. The strike at the hotel, about a half-hour drive from the capital, was a reminder that the Taliban can still hit very close to the seat of the Afghan government.

Fourteen Afghan civilians, three security guards and an Afghan police officer died in the attack, said Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police.

"The attackers entered the hotel and suddenly opened fire on families having a late dinner," Zahir said. "The hotel was crowded. Some of the guests jumped from the window into the hotel yard. They were hiding under trees or any safe place they could find.

"Three of the guests jumped into the lake and hid in the water,' ' he added.

Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi said the five attackers — armed with machines guns, rocket-propelled grenades and vests laden with explosives — stormed the Spozhmai hotel at Qargha Lake before midnight on Thursday. By midmorning Friday, militants were still fighting Afghan forces, supported by international troops. Gunfire pierced the quiet surroundings of the lake area. Black smoke was rising from the two-story hotel in a wooded area on the bank of the lake. NATO helicopters circled overhead.

"It was around 11:20 p.m. last night when it all started," said Mohammad Ghani, who was at the scene. "It got quiet for a couple of hours and then the fighting stated again."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the Taliban attacked the hotel because foreigners there were drinking alcohol and participating in other activities banned by Islam, but that was disputed by the Kabul police.

"The Taliban propaganda is saying that there was immoral activity there and that people were drinking alcohol," said Zahir, the criminal director for the Kabul police. "That is totally wrong. These are people who had worked all week and had gone to the lake to have a restful dinner with their families. The view there is very good for relaxation. There is no alcohol."

The hotel, situated on a man-made lake, is a popular place for well-to-do Afghans to spend Thursday night — the beginning of the Afghan weekend — or for picnic excursions on a Friday when paddleboats and horse rides are on offer. Though international workers do go to Qargha lake, Afghans make up the majority of the clientele at the hotels and kebab shops along its shore.

Security at the lake is light compared with targets inside the Afghan capital. While hotels at the lake have armed guards, there are no massive blast walls and security cordons that surround government and military buildings in Kabul. Zahir said only two of the three guards killed at the hotel were armed.

The hotel was a soft target compared with the attacks insurgents have launched inside the city in recent years, including taking over construction sites and firing down on embassies and storming the tightly secured Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul last summer.

The week has been particularly violent in Afghanistan, as insurgents stepped up attacks against international forces. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber attacked U.S. and Afghan forces at a checkpoint in a busy market in the east, killing 21 people, including three U.S. soldiers. The same day, seven Afghan civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

Those bombings came the day after two attacks in the south in which militants stormed a NATO military base and attacked a police checkpoint. U.S. troops were wounded in the attack on the NATO base, officials said. On Monday, three gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms killed one American service member and wounded nine others in Kandahar's Zhari district.

The fighting suggests that the Taliban are not planning to wait for international combat forces to complete their exit from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, has to withdraw 23,000 American troops by the end of September, leaving about 68,000 U.S. military personnel in the country.

[nancy_naive]

Just out of curiosity, who do you think is reading that "Crime Scene Do Not Cross" on the tape?

[naksuthin]

The United States spends 700 billion dollars a year on the soldiers, guns, ships, tanks, helicopters and night vision goggles. We are spending 10 billion dollars a month just to protect the Afghans. We have 100,000 Nato soliders in Afghanistan. Afghans have 200,000 American trained and armed security forces.

Why, after 11 years are a bunch of poor illiterate ill equipped untrained Taliban (who number about 25,000) who have no tanks, no helicopter gun ships, no predator drones, no aircraft carriers, no nuclear submarines, no jet fighters, no night vision googles , no bullet proof vests, no satellite communications systems...no boots and helmets...why are they STILL holding the upper hand in Afghanistan where our troops outnumbered them 4 to 1?

If you had asked me 11 years ago how long these "ragtag farmer soldiers" would have lasted against the mightiest , most technologically advanced fighting force the world has ever seen, I would have guessed maybe a few months at most.
But here we 11 YEARS later are mired in the longest war in US history with no light at the end of the tunnel.
We poured hundreds of billions of dollars into Afghanistan. We've lost almost 2000 US soldiers there. Our troops have done a Iraqi style "surge". We've tried negotiations, drone strikes, "winning hearts and minds", paying off restive tribes along the border....nothing has worked. The Taliban only seem to grow stronger and bolder. And US and Nato soldiers continue to die for a corrupt government and an Afghan population that seems to hate us more with each passing day.

Over 30 years ago the might Russian army suffered the same defeat at the hands of the same bunch of illiterate farmers.

They chose the right course of action. They packed up their tanks, helicopters and soldiers...and left.

It's time we did the same.

[nancy_naive]

"Flesh is stronger than steel."

[superdem1]

Ah Afghanistan, what a lovely place, what nice friendly people ! I say get out and let these beasts live like they want to. There's a reason Afghanistan hasn't progressed one iota since ancient times. The people don't WANT it. They want to live like ignorant animals, so let them.

[cbs_bull]

A typical Taliban style by targeting civilians. Maybe we should let Afghan security forces to do more fighting.

[awenshok]

There were NO French casualties.....

[nancy_naive]

Hmmm, lemme see. Was that a dig at the French?

Let's count 'em up. Since 1950, they have Vietnam and Algeria, and we have Vietnam, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and soon to be Afghanistan.

USA! USA! Leading the French in retreating 5 to 2...

BTW, just so you know, when the US left Lebanon, it was the French Peacekeepers who were forced to cover the Marines run for the beach. The US abandoned their positions WITHOUT telling the French leaving their flanks exposed.

You should read about Ronnie's Disgrace sometime.

On Feb. 3, Reagan had told the Wall Street Journal, in an exclusive interview, "As long as there is a chance for peace, the mission remains the same. If we get out, that means the end of Lebanon." In a barb directed at House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (D, Mass), Reagan had said, "He may be ready to surrender, but I'm not."

The next day, in his weekly radio address, Reagan had said the dangers of the U.S. mission in Lebanon were "no reason to cut and run." "If we do," Reagan had added, "we'll be sending one signal to terrorists everywhere: They can gain by waging war against innocent people."

In the statement issued by the White House the evening of Feb. 7, however, Reagan announced that he had ordered the approximately 1,400 Marines in Beirut to begin "shortly" a phased withdrawal to U.S. ships offshore.

[venusvegasvada]

CBS is behind the curve.

Check the BBC News, they have retaken the hotel and it's all over.