Six killed in suicide attack on Kabul's top hotel

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

UN 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.

At least one American was among the dead, US State Department officials said.

It appeared to be 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 bombers 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.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel – one bomber who detonated his explosives and three 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.

“Our security guards undertook an armed evacuation, where we went from corner to corner in the cellar until we reached a safe area,” he said.

The UN 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,” Mr Ban told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

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

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

“There were two or three bombs, and there was complete chaos,” Solum said. “When I started to walk out (of the lift) 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 central 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 website, 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.

More than 30 US soldiers in a half dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the US 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 US Embassy, which told her to not open the door unless she heard an American voice. US 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.

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.