Taliban kill 18 over ‘wild parties’ in Afghan hotel

For eight-year-old Rasoul Khan, a cleaning job at a favoured weekend relaxation spot for Kabul’s wealthy was meant to help bring a better life in a country stricken by widespread poverty.

Instead, the Spozhmai Hotel beside Qargha Lake will probably evoke terror whenever he remembers the five Taliban gunmen who burst through its doors on Thursday night and killed 18 people as the privileged gathered to relax ahead of the Friday religious holiday.

“They were asking everyone where the pimps were. They shot anyone who would not co-operate with them,” said Rasoul, bearing a facial injury and standing barefoot after fleeing the leafy grounds.

For the Taliban, men and women who mingle, perhaps flirt, are condemned as pimps and prostitutes who deserve punishment sanctioned by God.

Insurgents first killed the security guards at the hotel, then stormed inside 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 for the next 12 hours.

Kabul police said all five attackers had been shot and killed by midday, ending the stand-off.

The attack again showed the ability of insurgents to easily stage high-profile raids even as Nato nations prepare to withdraw most combat troops by the end of 2014 and leave Afghans to lead the fight.

Gunmen shifted a large store of rocket-propelled grenades, heavy weapons and rifles, as well as suicide vests, into the stone-walled, single-storey structure surrounded by trees and gardens.

The Taliban said it launched the attack to target wealthy Afghans and foreigners who used the hotel, about 10km from the centre of Kabul, for “wild parties”.

The hotel was only lightly defended by a handful of poorly paid guards.

Inside the hotel, at least eight bodies, some with bullet wounds to the head, still lay on the floor. A bomb lay beneath the body of a young man — planted by the Taliban to inflict more casualties.