Taliban's 'inhuman' attack will not deter UN: Ban Ki-moon

Taliban disguised as police killed five UN workers after storming their living quarters in Kabul today in an effort to disrupt the forthcoming presidential election.

Three attackers and three others also died in the two-hour raid which began shortly before 6am and sent people jumping out of windows or leaping from roof to roof to escape a fire that engulfed part of the three-storey building.

It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month’s presidential run-off election. At least 25 UN staff were staying at the Kabul guest house, most of them advisers for the November 7 vote.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assaults, which included rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city’s main luxury hotel. The Taliban has warned Afghans to stay away from the polls or risk attacks.

The chief of the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack “will not deter the UN from continuing all its work” in the country.

“We will not be deterred from this noble mission,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

About a mile from the guest house, one rocket struck the “outer limit” of the presidential palace but caused no casualties, presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said. Two more rockets slammed into the grounds of the expensive Serena Hotel, favoured by many foreigners.

One failed to explode but filled the hotel lobby with smoke, forcing guests and employees to flee to the basement.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as “an inhuman act” and called on the army and police to strengthen security around all international institutions.

The Taliban issued a statement threatening anyone working on the November 7 run-off election between Mr Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.

“This is our first attack,” said a spokesman.

An official with the UN election team said the Bakhtar guest house was home to the largest concentration of UN election workers in the city.

UN spokesman Adrian Edwards initially said six UN staff were killed and nine other UN employees were wounded. Later, he revised the figure to five, indicating one body may have been counted twice.

Afghan police and UN officials said 11 people in all were killed, including the UN staff, three attackers, two security guards and an Afghan civilian. It was not clear whether there were any other attackers besides the three killed.

The dead also included the brother-in-law of one of Afghanistan’s most powerful governors, Gul Agha Sherzai. The man was killed by a stray bullet as he watched the gunfight from a nearby house, according to provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

John Turner, a trucking contractor from Kansas City, said the attackers appeared well organised and were able to penetrate the building, located on a residential street.

“This has clearly been a very serious incident for us,” Mr Edwards said. “We’ve not had an incident like this in the past.”

In August 2003 a truck bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad which killed 22 people, prompted the UN to pull out of Iraq for several years.

Afghans are to vote on November 7 in a second-round election after UN-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of Mr Karzai’s votes from the August 20 ballot, determining widespread fraud. That pushed his totals below the 50% threshold needed for a first-round victory in the 36-candidate field.

Dozens of people were killed in Taliban attacks during the August balloting, helping drive down voter turnout.