6 Dead In Afghan Luxury Hotel Attack

Taliban Takes Responsibility For Kabul Blast, Gunfire Killing 6, Including 1 American

(AP)  Militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked a luxury hotel on Monday, killing at least six people in the most brazen attack yet on Western civilians in Kabul, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the Norwegian foreign minister, who was not hurt, was the target of the assault, which came as the Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting at the Serena Hotel. Two U.S. State Department officials said at least one American was among the dead. A Norwegian reporter also died.

It was the first direct assault on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The assailants also appeared to concentrate on the hotel's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out. An American inside said she saw a dead body and pools of blood in the lobby.

The militants killed six people and wounded six, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. One of the attackers was shot to death and the Taliban spokesman said a second died in the suicide explosion. It was unclear whether the Norwegian journalist was counted among the six dead.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told The Associated Press that four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel - one bomber who detonated his explosives and three militants who threw grenades and fired guns and then fled. The claim could not be verified but came very soon after the attack.

Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was in the hotel basement with a Norwegian delegation at the time, said he was about to start a meeting when the explosions hit, and everyone was ordered to lie on the floor for about 10 minutes.

"I don't think anyone could experience this without feeling you are in a serious situation," Stoere said on the TV-2 television network.

"Our security guards undertook an armed evacuation, where we went from corner to corner in the cellar until we reached a safe area," he told Norwegian reporters.

The U.N. secretary-general said Stoere was the target but could not say why.

"They do not care whoever, whatever. This is really a serious crime against humanity," Ban told several reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Norway in past years has been singled out at least twice among nations al Qaeda has said should be targeted because of its participation in the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan and a previous deployment in Iraq. However, there have not been any recent threats that authorities took seriously.

The founder of the al Qaeda-linked Iraqi extremist group Ansar al-Islam, Kurdish leader Mullah Krekar, is a refugee in Norway but was declared a threat to national security in 2005 and ordered deported. He has not yet been expelled.

Stoere arrived in Kabul on Monday, and had been scheduled to meet top leaders and some of the 500 Norwegian peacekeepers stationed in Afghanistan.

Stian L. Solum, a photographer from the Norwegian photo agency Scanpix, said a Norwegian journalist from the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet and a Norwegian diplomatic staff member were wounded and the journalist later died.

"We feel great sorrow and powerlessness," Dagbladet managing editor Anne Aasheim said on the paper's Web site.

The paper identified the dead journalist as Carsten Thomassen, 39.

"There were two or three bombs, and there was complete chaos," Solum said on the state radio network NRK. "When I started to walk out (of the elevator) a bomb went off, a little way from me. There were shots fired by what I think was an ANA (Afghan National Army) soldier."

The 177-room Serena is a newly built hotel frequently used by foreign embassies for meetings, parties and dinners. The nicest hotel in the city, Westerners often stay or eat dinner there. Located in downtown Kabul, it is near the presidential palace though separated by fences, blast walls and checkpoints. It is also near several government ministries and a district police station.

On its Web site, the hotel claims it is an "oasis of luxury in a war-ravaged city."

Aftenposten journalist Tor Arne Andreassen told the Oslo paper's Internet edition that he heard a grenade explode.

"Out the window I could see shots being fired at the guardpost by the gate," Andreassen said. He said he saw a female hotel employee so badly wounded that he did not believe she could have survived.

"The plaster flew around our room and the whole building shook," Andreassen said.

In Washington, two State Department officials said that at least one American was among the dead. The identity of the victim was being withheld until family could be notified, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcment of the death.

More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the U.S. Embassy ran through the hotel searching for Americans.

Suzanne Griffin, a Seattle resident who works with the aid agency Save the Children, said she was in the gym's locker room when the attack started.

"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," said Griffin, her voice shaking. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass and huddled on the floor. We turned our phones on silent."

Griffin, 62, said hotel staff evacuated the women to another part of the hotel. "We had to step over a woman's dead body. She was one of the gym people," she said.

She contacted the U.S. Embassy, which told her to not open the door unless she heard an American voice. U.S. soldiers evacuated her.

"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby. There were empty shell casings outside," she said.

Earlier, the officials said no U.S. government employees were believed to have been in the hotel when the attack occurred. They said several Americans who had been there had called the embassy in Kabul to say they had not been injured. But the officials could not say if any private U.S. citizens were unaccounted for.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it unclear who was responsible for the attack.

"It 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," she said.

She said U.S. and NATO forces were waging a strong stand. "But we're in for a long, hard fight. These are deliberate, patient people who will murder innocents, including our own people."

In 2003, a rocket exploded near the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, knocking some guests from their restaurant chairs and shattering windows across the lobby and in many bedrooms. No injuries were reported.

[kissamaarse]

Good. I am glad the Marines are deploying several thousand more troops to Afghanisatn. At least the Marines remember 9-11 and who Osama Bin Laden is. I''ve said over and over on this board, redeploy all the Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan, and let the Dogs hunt down Bin Laden, and the Saudi al-Qaeda murderers of 9-11, and send the Army home. (Don''t mind if they kick the s---- out of the Taleban again while they''re at it.) Let the BIG OIL companies hire Blackwater to protect them in Iraq, and let them pay for it instead of the U.S. taxpayers. The BIG OIL companies get enough subsidies from the Republican government already without paying for their protection in Iraq.

[feelfree1]

At least we are not squandering our blood, treasure, and dignity, all in one spot.

It is clearly a global operation.

[telecom_1]

Taliban & Alqaeda offer death, they cannot offer peace or love or mercy, they can only offer hate, violence and destruction. Taliban is scared of elections and freedom, if given a freedom of choice people would soon cast away these heroin dealing suicidal terrorists rebels. They have chosen to believe a lie that mass murder is martyrdom.

[Con Mohrat]

If the US had not made a stand against the spread of communism we would live in a communist world today.
Posted by runningralph at 04:56 PM : Jan 14, 2008

~~~~~~~~

Communist China is a big help with Bush''s 9 trillion national debt.
And if you still don''t like communists, I hope you look around your house and don''t find anything made in the Peoples Republic of China, our benefactors and trading partner with Most Favoured Nation status.

[Con Mohrat]

(AP) Militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked a luxury hotel on Monday, killing at least six people in the most brazen attack yet on Western civilians in Kabul, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said.

~~~~~~~~

Daffy, the Lame Duck goaded them to Bring ''Em On.
And they complied, Daf.

[kansas1946]

The Viet Nam War was a part of the Cold War against Communist imperialism. In fact we won the Cold War even though we could not save Viet Nam. That''''''''s what we won. If the US had not made a stand against the spread of communism we would live in a communist world today.
*******************************************


Yeah, right. We heard the same BS from Reagan about the contras and rebels, communists, etc., in Central America. We have heard the same BS from every war monger in history. We just aren''t buying anymore. The communists took over in Viet Nam (if you remember) and now we are doing business with them.

[kansas1946]

Yeah, Bush has every thing under controll alright. Send a surge to Iraq, and the rats just run over to Afghanistan. Bush opened Pandora''s Box with his idiot invasion of Iraq, and now everyone else has to pay the price while he retires to his little dude ranch in Texas.

[noloyalisti]

I am just glad the war mongering, God Bless America, this is my story and I''m sticking to it crowd are being marginalized like the extremely small radical bunch they are.

I include CEOs of most large corporations, most of the media folks and most of our politicians. They still have a large amount of power and influence but hopefully that will soon be ended.

Power to the peaceful

[prinzowhales]

vivaviva80--And Ms. Sibel Edmonds has a national security gag placed on her by the Regime''s judiciary... but she has put the pictures of some of the traitors and ''persons of interest'' up on her website without comment.

Congress remains mute..cowardly dogs that they are!

[random_radar]

Britain tried to conquer Afghanistan and failed.

The Soviet Union tried to conquer Afghanistan and failed.

The United States is trying to conquer Afghanistan and will fail.

Afghanistan has an undefeated record against invaders in the last 150 years.

[noloyalisti]

Communism is just the ultimate form of socialism, something that most European and other advance countries practice.

They do that because runaway unbridled and unregulated capitalism leads to fascism, something we are seeing being played out in the United States today.

Almost all of South America is turning toward socialism because America has proved what a failure greed driven capitalism is for the people.

So we didn''t stop the spread of capitalism, we helped it. Just as we are helping the spread of Islam and terrorism (no relation).

[sgtrds]

Out of curiosity how did we win the cold war? I think it is a case of having a little more endurance.

Posted by ozilot at 05:00 PM : Jan 14, 2008

We won the cold war by outspending them on weapons systems. I realize some people have the ridiculous idea that our flop in Viet-Nam played a part in the "win", but it didn''t It was a waste of time, money, effort and most of all, lives, just like the war in Iraq is.

[secundus2]

The attack on Norwegians by the Taliban bombers, if that is what this was, ought to be regarded as an attack on ISAF and NATO, and NATO countries other than the US ought to take a tough response.

Don''t expect much from the Europeans in NATO, unless perhaps the Norwegians themselves are angered and decide to up their numbers in ISAF (just as likely they will cave in). It will be interesting to see whether this incident has consequences. Of course, the Spanish model is to make a deal with terrorists: "promise not to attack us, if we run."

[runningralph]

noloyalisti,
The Viet Nam War was a part of the Cold War against Communist imperialism. In fact we won the Cold War even though we could not save Viet Nam. That''s what we won. If the US had not made a stand against the spread of communism we would live in a communist world today. If the US does not make a stand against jihadists today we will be Islamist tomorrow.

[random_radar]

The big news is that there is a luxury hotel in Afghanistan. Who would have thought?

[noloyalisti]

We may have won all the battles but we lost the war. It caused a very bad economic recession that is similar to what we are experiencing now. We killed two million Vietnamese and poisoned their country for generations. It led to the disaster that was Reagan and conservative based privatization of the country which is enriching the corporate CEOS at the expense of the rest of us.

What did we win?

[feralwind]

(continued) doesn''t have any plans to usurp Islamist oil. If the west wasn''t buying oil from middle eastern countries, Iran and Saudi Arabia would be sh@t out of luck.

[feralwind]

Unlike western countries, war for Islamists means deliberately targeting civilians.
That''s one of the reasons why Islamists must be eradicated.

Islamists are also the REAL oil ******, not western countries. Islamists don''t want democracy because it would mean that they would have to distribute oil proceeds to their poverty stricken populations.

Islamists intend to be dictators, using the money they make on oil sales to obtain weapons and world-takeover.

The U.S.

[gunnerv1]

noloyalisti Please tell me where we "Lost" Viet-Nam, The last time I looked, we were forced to retreat because of defunding by the Liberal wussies. We did not lose one battle (documented).

[notblue]

Just another day and another bomb brought to us all on behalf of radical Islam!