Taliban attack in Kabul kills 11
The extremists are warning citizens to stay away from polls or risk more attacks.
KABUL (AP) — Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital Wednesday, killing 11 people including five U.N. workers.
The two-hour attack, which began shortly before 6 a.m., sent people jumping out of windows or hopping from roof to roof to escape a fire that engulfed part of the three-story building. A man from Kansas City, Mo., said he held off gunmen with a Kalashnikov until a group of guests escaped through the laundry room.
It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month’s presidential runoff election. At least 25 U.N. staff were staying at the guest house, most of them advisers for the Nov. 7 balloting.
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 U.N. from continuing all its work” in the country.
“We will not be deterred from this noble mission,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in New York.
One of the U.N. dead was an American, the U.S. Embassy said.
John Christopher “Chris” Turner, a trucker from Kansas City, said the attackers appeared well-organized and were able to penetrate the building, located on a residential street.
Flushed and with black stains on his hands and face, Turner said 40 people were staying at the guest house, of whom about 25 took refuge in the laundry room at the back of the building under his protection.
“I am armed. I carry an AK-47 and I kept firing it to keep the attackers away from the group I was guarding,” he said. The group later jumped over a back wall to take refuge in a house behind the guest house, he said.
It was not possible to reach others who had been staying at the guest house to verify Turner’s account. They were being evacuated to Dubai for counseling, the U.N. said. Turner did not have a weapon when he spoke with an Associated Press reporter.