Posted on 10/28/2009 11:30:00 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
KABUL (AFP) – Taliban gunmen stormed a UN guesthouse in Kabul Wednesday, killing at least eight people in a suicide attack as the Islamist militia signalled a bloody countdown to new Afghan elections next week.
President Hamid Karzai ordered an urgent security upgrade for international organisations after the rampage, which left at least five expatriate UN staff dead in the worst assault on the world body's Afghanistan mission since 2001.
The Obama administration and UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, which the Afghan defence ministry said was the work of Pakistani Taliban dressed as police who struck the UN-approved Bekhtar Guesthouse before dawn.
Witnesses said the militants sprayed the hostel with gunfire and detonated grenades before blowing themselves up.
A UN spokesman in Kabul said five expatriate staff were confirmed as having died while forensic tests would be carried out on the remains of sixth person. The American embassy identified one as a US citizen.
Two security personnel were also killed, bringing the total death toll to eight, plus the three gunmen.
Another nine UN staff were wounded as gunfire and explosions rang out across the city in a smart residential district close to popular shopping streets.
Militants also fired rockets at the luxury Serena Hotel but no casualties were reported.
Officials said three gunmen entered the hostel in Kabul's Shar-e-Now district around dawn as the guests were sleeping.
An American contractor staying at the hostel said two of the dead were women and described scenes of panic during a more than two-hour siege.
"One suicide bomber killed one of the women just as she was trying to get through the fire. He blew himself up," John Christopher Turner told reporters.
Another woman was overcome by smoke from the explosions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
No big deal for the most tolerant of the tolerant... the Taliban.
0bama to apologize in a few minutes...
.
Security forces secure the area around an international guest-house in Kabul after an attack by Taliban militants October 28, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
He’s busy babysitting tonite;the Mrs. is at Yankee stadium.
The run-off election is still on.
Private trucks carrying ballot boxes and election materials leave the Independent Election Commission (IEC) warehouse in Kabul on October 24. Canada urged Afghans to go out and vote in next week's runoff presidential election despite the "cowardly" attack on a UN guest house in Kabul, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday. (AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)
Yes, jOker, the Taliban is certainly a positive addition to democracy in Toilet-stan. What did you shoot today? Have you garnered more accolades than Tiger Woods yet?
how was this a suicide?
Ok, I see where one guy blew himself up.
No doubt Obama will cut and run. Liberals don’t fight unless they have to. Bush would be more resolute. There is no doubt in my mind this will nerve Obama to quitting.
Map showing how the provinces voted in the first round of the Afghan presidential vote. Doubts are now rising about whether a run-off will take place. (AFP/graphic)
Looks like a real snake charmer.. or a fakir.
Who in their right mind would want to run a country that is a perpetual battlefield and has been for ages?
Burqa-clad Afghan women walk past an election poster of Abdullah Abdullah, former Afghan foreign minister in Kabul. As Afghanistan's presidential candidates posture and position themselves for the upcoming second round of elections, doubts are rising about whether the run-off will take place at all. (AFP/Shah Marai)
Just Mohammedans acting like Mohammedans.
Guess what, mr president! They don’t like us. Your election didn’t change that. They will never like us even if we have 10 presidents who bow down in submission and grovel for forgiveness for having the values of Western Civilization
Sounds like a friendly fire incident to me.
I think it is time for O to talk to these guys man to man.
;-)
BO is likely to wag his finger and tell them “Naughty, naughty” again.
Such is the “leadership” from the “no consequences” crowd, over at lib nation.
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