Several people killed after gunmen attack luxury hotel in Kabul

Afghan special forces storm the building to flush out attackers and rescue staff and guests reportedly taken hostage.

Afghan special forces have stormed the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul to try to flush out gunmen who attacked the building, killing five people and reportedly taking hostages.

 

As dawn broke on Sunday, thick clouds of black smoke could be seen pouring from the hotel. Several armoured US military vehicles with heavy machine guns could be seen close to the hotel along with Afghan police units.

 

Television pictures also showed special forces troops manoeuvering on the roof as they conducted a floor-by-floor search of the six-storey building to find the attackers.
 

Several people could be seen climbing over a top-floor balcony using bedsheets to escape, with one losing his grip and plunging to the ground.

Officials said all four of the insurgents – who killed at least five people in the attack – were dead and that the security forces’ operation was now complete.

“Five Afghans are dead,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters near the hotel.

The gang reportedly also took hostages from among staff and guests, and set the building ablaze. Danish said 100 hostages, including 16 foreigners, had been released.

The militants, including at least one suicide bomber, launched the attack at about 9pm local time on Saturday, security officials said.

A witness said some foreigners were among the hotel guests but it was not clear what their nationalities were.

The hotel had been due to host an information technology conference on Sunday and more than 100 IT managers and engineers were onsite when the attack took place, Ahmad Waheed, an official at the telecommunications ministry, said.

The gunmen had entered the hotel through a kitchen door to evade heavy security at the front, local news reports said.

“We are hiding in our rooms – I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us,” one guest told AFP at the start of the attack. “I can hear gunfire from somewhere near the first floor.”

Two guests at the hotel confirmed that the militants attacked when they were eating, and that people in the dining room had attempted to flee. Ahsan Ali told the Observer: “People ran to their rooms and locked themselves in – it was a dreadful scene.”

It was the latest major blow to security in the Afghan capital, which has been reeling from a string of bloody attacks by both Taliban and Isis militants.

In May last year a huge truck bomb devastated part of the diplomatic quarter, killing about 150 people and wounding about 400 others.

The most recent major attack was on 29 December, when a suicide bomber targeted a Shia cultural centre, killing more than 40 people.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the Intercontinental, which came just two days after the US embassy put out a warning that militants might be planning to target hotels in the city.

The blaze on the top floors of the hilltop complex could be seen from across the city. Commando forces were sent in, and electricity was cut soon after the attack began, amid fears that guests had been taken hostage.

Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who managed to escape unhurt, told Reuters people were fleeing amid bursts of gunfire on all sides.

One of the most famous buildings in Kabul, the Intercontinental was a playground for the city’s elite when it opened in 1969, with parties around the swimming pool and weddings in its halls.

It was later a base for foreign journalists during the civil war that followed the Russian withdrawal, then during the period of Taliban rule and the US-led invasion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on America. In 2011 was targeted by the Taliban in an attack that killed 21 people.



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