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Islamic jihadists storm “Kabul’s safest hotel,” murder nine people

Mar 21, 2014 5:26 pm By Robert Spencer

kabul-serena-hotelThis was the safest hotel in Kabul, where UN workers, journalists, and foreign diplomats stayed. The gunmen got in because of a lapse in security: probably someone who was sympathetic to the Taliban’s jihad got onto the security staff. After all, there is absolutely no way to prevent such a thing.

“Pictured: Journalist who was gunned down alongside his young family at Kabul’s ‘safest restaurant’ after four teenage Taliban with mini pistols in their socks open fire,” by Luke Garratt and Emily Kent Smith for the Daily Mail, March 20 (thanks to Thomas):

An Agence France-Press journalist, his wife and two young children are among the nine dead after four teenage Taliban with mini pistols hidden in their socks opened fire in a Kabul hotel yesterday.

Reporter Sardar Ahmad, 40, had been based in Kabul and was at the Serena hotel with his three children and wife Humaira when Taliban gunmen stormed into the building and killed nine people.

Mr Ahmad’s youngest son is believed to have survived the attack and is said to have undergone emergency treatment.

The shooting happened at the luxury hotel which is used by U.N. staff and prominent Afghan politicians in Kabul.

Today, AFP colleagues paid tribute to the journalist describing him as ‘charming’ and ‘talented’.

An obituary to the journalist read: ‘Shocked colleagues of Sardar Ahmad, the senior reporter in AFP’s Kabul bureau, Friday mourned the loss of a charming and talented journalist equally at ease covering Afghanistan’s wrenching conflict as with colourful tales including a lion who lived on a roof.’

The Gathering of Afghan Journalists Group released a statement on the ‘tragic’ events in which they described the attack as ‘cowardly’. A tribute was paid to the ‘experienced’ and ‘renowned’ journalist.

‘This incident comes despite the fact that Afghan journalists have assiduously tried to remain neutral in their coverage amid difficult circumstances.

‘In this attack, the Taliban deliberately and ruthlessly targeted civilians, shooting women and innocent children around the dinner table,’ a statement read.

The assault on the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, which lasted some three hours, was the latest in a string of attacks by the insurgents seeking to spoil a presidential election on April 5.

The gunmen were shot dead by security forces, witnesses and police said on Friday.

The election would mark the first time in Afghanistan’s history that one elected government hands power to another.

Four Taliban fighters snuck past security early on Thursday evening, at around 6pm, and hid inside the building for three hours before opening fire on diners inside the hotel’s restaurant, according to interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

They then battled Afghan special forces as terrified guests hid in rooms or fled to hotel bunkers.

All the Taliban gunmen were shot dead.

During the attack guests crouched in bathrooms with the lights turned off as they listened to gunfire and people running up and down the hallways.

An Afghan security personnel keeping watch near the Serena hotel. Security forces surrounded the hotel while a fast response unit entered the hotel to combat the gunmen

‘I never heard an explosion or anything. Only firearms and possible rocket-propelled grenades,’ one senior U.N. official said in a text message from his darkened room.

One of the hotel’s main saferooms, which was packed with guests and Afghan members of parliament, filled with smoke from a fire in the kitchen.

‘It was hard to breathe. People started putting wet napkins on their faces,’ one witness said.

A total of nine were killed the foreigners that died were from Canada, India, New Zealand and Pakistan, the interior ministry said.

All the 18 U.N. staff members known to be inside had been accounted for, according to a U.N. official.
Sardar Ahmad is pictured here celebrating with colleagues and friends at a local bowling alley in Kabul.

Police are investigating how the gunmen got into the Serena.

The hotel has dozens of armed guards patrolling its perimeter, and anyone entering is checked with metal detectors and body searched for weapons.

‘Our first conclusion is that unfortunately that was a failure by that security and measures that were in place,’ Sediqqi said, showing reporters photos of pistols roughly the size of a packet of cigarettes and piles of ammunition.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack and said the gunmen had targeted guests celebrating the eve of the Afghan new year on Friday.

‘Suicide bombers have entered the Serena Hotel, heavy battle is underway, enemies suffered heavy casualties,’ the Taliban spokesman said in a text message.

The Serena hotel has been attacked several times during the Taliban insurgency, but Thursday’s assault was the deadliest so far.

In 2008, gunmen disguised as police stormed the hotel and opened fire on guests inside its gym, killing six.

Despite its history as a targeted location, the Serena’s restaurant was one of the few places in Kabul where foreign officials were still permitted to dine.

The prohibition was established following a Taliban attack in January on a Lebanese restaurant that killed 21 people, including three U.N. staff and the International Monetary Fund’s top representative in Afghanistan.

A U.N. spokesman told Reuters that the attack would not stop the organization from providing support for the April election.

‘This doesn’t deter us from our commitment to assist the Afghan people and support them in the election,’ said Ari Gaitanis.

The Taliban has vowed to kill anyone associated with next month’s presidential elections, which take place on April 5 and marks the first time one elected government hands power to another in the history of Afghanistan.

Their primary targets have been polling staff, voters and security forces, in the run up to the event which has already been badly marred by violence….

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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 5:55 pm

    Islam is a mental illness.

    Shooting foreigners who come to help, heal and educate shows how desperately PSYCHOTIC Islam is. Islam must be cured by a massive ideological campaign of governments to dissuade people to believe in this evil, vile Death Cult.

  2. mortimer says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 5:55 pm

    There is hope. Islam can be cured.

    • Richard Parmene says

      Mar 21, 2014 at 6:49 pm

      Yeah ? How ?

  3. mariam rove says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 6:06 pm

    Nothing is safe from Talibans. M

  4. Wellington says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 6:17 pm

    All of which proves that safety in an Islamic land is a very relative matter.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Mar 21, 2014 at 11:40 pm

      Hi Wellington! I would revise that to say that safety in an islamic land is a very dubious matter.

  5. Theo Prinse says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 7:02 pm

    Off tppic

    My Email to

    Dear Mr. Geert Wilders

    2.5 million PVV voters are not interested in the petty village council of Almere.

    The 2.5 million PVV voters know that you dare to say what they think and they know that the Islamization is threathening the Netherlands.

    The Netherlands of the PVV obviously finds itself now in the same situation as our friends in Israel

    We are freedom fighters and continue to stand behind you

    It is better that – just like in 1938 the bad apples around Neville Chamberlain appeasement – better leave the PVV.

    The politics of the PVV is not for weak manipulable people.

    Remember that the CIA and NATO and many foreign secret services are in over the Netherlands and these weak people are sensitive for their manipulative and psychological warfare.

    Let us remember that NATO is in Brussels that we are fighting.

    We just continue to fight for freedom!

    Theo Prinse

    • Theo Prinse says

      Mar 21, 2014 at 9:33 pm

      The struggle of the PVV – the Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders – is against the incumbent political parties .

      The PVV is against Islam, against foreign takeover and criminal communities.

      The PVV is against multiculturalism, against culture nihilism and against cultural Marxism .

      The PVV is against re – distribution and state subsidy policies.
      The PVV is against European intervention in Holland and against a European superstate . The list goes on and on.

      All other Dutch parties in the political spectrum are PRO all the above mentioned.

      The PVV of Geert Wilders has extremely powerful enemies associated with the various issues mentioned above.

      The anti- Islam policy of the Freedom Party of Geert wilders is confronted with the Islamic world community of 1.3 billion Muslims. Their political elite has billions of dollars against the PVV.

      The anti- European battle of the PVV opposes the Brussels mafia and Brussels has billions to destroy the PVV of Geert Wilders.

      In Brussels, Nato’s headquarters of Anders Fogh Rasmussen are located which is pursuing the annexation of the Ukraine commissioned by the European Mafia’s of Guy Verhofstadt Hans van Baalen etc.

      Nato has great social and military influence to psychologically manipulate Individuals like weakling PVV MP’s

      This weekend a summit of world leaders takes pakce in The Hague summit concerning nuclear matters. The U.S. president and his muslim CIA director John Brennan – who himself is suspected to have eavedropped on his own US Senators like Diana Feinstein – is also present in the Hague.

      Furthermore, Holland is swarming with more secret services like the British MI6 and other security services.

      This military intelligence is eavesdropping on all phones and internet activities during the next few days and they use psychological operations ( Psyops ) to manipulate alleged dangers

      The PVV of Geert Wilders is a danger for the political elite in Washington John McCain, Zbigniew Brzezinski, London Cameron Hague and Brussels Verhofstadt, van Baalen, Martin Schulz.

      The PVV struggle for freedom is an example for the whole world.
      The PVV nor Geert Wilders can step down from the battle.

      It is good Geert Wilders boosted the psychological pressure within the PVV Freedom Party so rotten apples and weak minds can fall out in the party and the PVV can proceed reinforced in the big campaign for the European elections and the struggle for freedom.

      • citycat says

        Mar 21, 2014 at 10:51 pm

        Don’t worry

        the battle

        is within

      • lia parma says

        Mar 22, 2014 at 4:33 am

        i am a 56 year old woman born in los angeles.I have never , ever read such an assembly of posts by critically knowledgable individuals, who know what the inundation of culturally deficient peoples , who refuse assimilation to host country ,can do to native peoples.I encourage everyone here to read anything written by, Thomas Sowell. available Amazon.Thank God for Geert Wilders and his courage to speak of the natural beauty of cultures who have risen to excellence because of judeo christian influences to always ascribe to live each day better than the last day one lived.THIS is exactly what non judeo christian cultures cannot grasp or endeavor in their lives or communities, or towns and in their HOME countries. This is why , Morroccans, Afghanistanis, Muslims need to stay in their original countries and try to make them better from within. Like the Saudis for example.[sarc]

  6. desidude2 says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    “This doesn’t deter us from our commitment to assist the Afghan people and support them in the election,’ said Ari Gaitanis”

    For your information Ari, Most of the Taliban are made of Afghans. There is nothing to distinguish a Taliban from an Afghan. Most of all they all read from the same religious book that calls for killing the enemy of Islam and promoting jihad. The only difference between the Afghans are that some take up on the offer of jihad from the book and the others want to wait.

  7. enwhitenment says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    Any Afghan under the age of 35 yrs has spent their entire life in a country that has been at war.
    Soviet , taliban, coalition.
    It is not like they have ever had a chance to vote or a system to complain about corruption.
    I imagine the young suicide murderers attended the same learning centre
    Preached to by a preacher of Islam who chose to preach hate so that he may gain.
    The preacher will never fight as he seeks only wealth & power or possibly just to avoid having to work for a living.
    Wipe out the hate preachers first where ever they live or they just get stronger.

    • Salah says

      Mar 22, 2014 at 1:39 am

      ” Wipe out the hate preachers first where ever they live or they just get stronger.”

      Wipe out the hate preachers?
      Here’s Obama’s answer: “Over my dead body!”

      • enwhitenment says

        Mar 22, 2014 at 2:22 am

        He is not my president so i can’t say i hear his speeches but i am sure what he meant was “over your dead body”.
        My suggestion would help solve the problem but is no less barbaric than what i oppose & therefore wrong.
        Better to set up a committee of sympathisers for islam & provide them with government funding so that they may go to work proving there is no hate preached.
        It is working ok so far is it not ?
        We just don’t understand how the religion of peace spreads it’s love thats all.
        There is a difference between “being paranoid” & “being delusional”
        I am paranoid about all the delusion being created to hide the truth

  8. Always On Watch says

    Mar 22, 2014 at 8:09 am

    SSDD!

    And still so many keep insisting, “Islam means peace.” Pffffft.

  9. St. Michael Defend Us says

    Mar 22, 2014 at 9:05 am

    Why would a man take his wife and children to such a place? PC/MC delusion? A gut feeling that he is “above the fray”?

  10. Walter Sieruk says

    Mar 22, 2014 at 10:41 am

    This heinous murderous affront that the Taliban was behind is the same Taliban that Karzai is so foolish to feel, in spite of all the facts, that some kind of worthwhile “peace alliance” can be made with. Just how unrealistic and a fool can Karzai be ? For even before recent attack the Taliban had worked very hard to prove, by their own actions, Time and time again. That they are a group of vicious ruthless thugs with no honor. In any “negotiations” they would only keep their word in anything that promise only as it would suit them and no longer. Thus in any “dialogue” with the officials of the Karzai government they will be lying and saying half-truths. They would only tell the whole truth only when it fits their agenda. In other words in any “talks’ the Taliban would be very disingenuous. Before engaging in the folly of trying to establish some kind of “peace alliance” with the Taliban Karzai and his government officials should instead heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu in THE ART OF WAR. Which teaches “We cannot enter into an alliance with neighboring princes until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more current and updated way, it may be said that “We cannot enter in an alliance with the Taliban until we are acquainted with their designs.”
    With the Taliban we all may be sure that their intentions are evil.

  11. gravenimage says

    Mar 25, 2014 at 4:56 pm

    ‘This doesn’t deter us from our commitment to assist the Afghan people and support them in the election’ said Ari Gaitanis.
    …………………………………

    And pious Muslims will continue to target these well-meaning Infidels…

    Which brings us to two questions: how long will the results of this election stand after the Americans and coalition forces leave? Just days, would be my guess…

    And the second question is: how much will it matter, in any case? After all, Karzai himself is playing footsie with the Taliban and has threatened to join them, and he is in support of Afghanistan’s *return to stonings*.

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