Australia moves embassy out of Kabul attack hotel

Australia today relocated its Afghanistan embassy out of a popular luxury hotel in Kabul that Taliban militants stormed yesterday, killing seven people.

The gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47s in the assault, hunting down Westerners who hid in a gym.

It is feared the coordinated attack could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.

One attacker blew himself up despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel. One Norwegian journalist and an American were among the dead, officials said.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the country’s embassy in Afghanistan, which had been in the Serena, has been relocated. He said no embassy staff were hurt or killed in the attack.

Witnesses described bullet marks, pools of blood and heavy damage inside the hotel, though no damage was seen to its exterior.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary today raised the death toll to seven from six. Six others were wounded.

More than 30 US soldiers in six Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force following the attack, and security personnel from the nearby US Embassy ran through the building looking for US citizens.

“There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen,” said Suzanne Griffin, who had been in the hotel gym at the time of the attack. She said she had to step over the body of a woman when evacuated from the changing room.

Griffin, 62, who was working for Save the Children, said she heard a lot of gunfire while in the gym.

“It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling,” Ms Griffin said. “We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent.”

It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena’s gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night.

The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet and was aimed at a prominent symbol of foreign presence in the country.

Taliban attacks have typically targeted Western and Afghan government or security personnel, not Western civilians.

The assault began around 6pm local time, when the Norwegian Embassy was hosting a meeting at the Serena for visiting Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

One of the militants was shot dead and a Taliban spokesman said a second died in the suicide explosion. It was not clear what happened to the other attackers.

A reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet, identified as Carsten Thomassen, 38, died from wounds he sustained in the attack, according to the paper’s website.

The 177-room Serena is a newly built luxury hotel frequently used by foreign embassies for meetings, parties and dinners. It is near the presidential palace, although separated by fences, blast walls and checkpoints. It is also near several government ministries and a district police station.