No Pakistani killed in Taliban Kabul hotel attack: embassy

Attack was on Serena Hotel used by United Nations' staff.

KABUL: Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan says that no Pakistani has been killed in the Taliban attack on the Kabul's Serene Hotel.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Siddiq Siddiqi earlier said that one Pakistani was among the four foreigners who were killed in the Taliban attack late Thursday.

"Not a single Pakistani has been killed," Akhtar Munir, spokesperson for the Pakistan embassy in Kabul said.

"Only one person by the name of Syed Muhammad Ahmed Sharjeel Zaidi is critically injured and he is in a coma," Munir told The Express Tribune when asked about the Afghan Interior Ministry's claim that a Pakistani national was also killed in the brazen attack.

Zaidi, 44, general manager of a multinational company in Lahore, had flown into Kabul on Thursday on company business. He was scheduled to return to Pakistan on Friday. He has received two bullet wounds at the head, the embassy spokesperson said.

Pakistani officials and Zaidi’s employer are making efforts to arrange an air ambulance to bring him to the country.

Taliban gunmen killed nine people in an attack on a luxury hotel used by United Nations' staff in Kabul on Thursday, before being shot dead in a shootout with Afghan security forces, police and government officials said.

The assault on the heavily fortified Serena Hotel was the latest in a string of bold attacks by the insurgents seeking to spoil an presidential election on April 5, which would mark the first time in Afghanistan's history that one elected government hands power to another.

Four Taliban fighters snuck into the hotel early on the evening of March 20 and hid for three hours before storming into the restaurant and opening fire on people inside, according to interior ministry spokesperson Sediq Sediqqi.

They then battled Afghan special forces for more than an hour inside the hotel before being overwhelmed, as terrified guests hid in rooms or fled to bunkers inside.

"I never heard an explosion or anything like that. Only firearms and possible rocket-propelled grenades," one senior UN official said in a text message from his room as hid with the lights turned off.

Nationals from Canada, India, and New Zealand were killed in the attack, the interior ministry said.

All United Nations staff were accounted for, a UN agency official told Reuters on condition of anonymity as they were unauthorised to speak to the media.

At the time of the attack, some 18 UN staff were inside the hotel, where many of them stay, and is frequented by prominent Afghan politicians and visiting foreign officials.

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.

Claiming responsibility

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack and said the gunmen had targeted both Afghan foreign 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 spokesperson said in a text message.

Mujahid said that the attack was launched after receiving credible intelligence about presence of important foreigners, Afghan officials and members of the parliament.

Giving details of the brazen attack on the heavily-guarded hotel, the Taliban spokesperson said the attack was launched at around 9 pm yesterday by four suicide bombers - Siddiqullah Maaz, Zahoorullah, Hafiz Agha Muhammad Hydari and Abdullah.

“They were equipped with latest arms and hand grenades, and succeeded to cross all security barriers with a huge explosion entering the hotel."

Mujahid said in a Pashto-language statement received by The Express Tribune that the Taliban men carried out the attack using special war tactics, on the basis of useful information and with a well-organized plan.

“They identified important personalities, separated them before targeting them. The attackers also fought with Afghan security personnel,” the Taliban spokesperson stated.

He claimed that a total of 22 people were killed and 13 others injured during the attack by the Taliban.

Previous attacks

The Serena hotel has been attacked several times during the Taliban insurgency, but yesterday's assault was the most deadly.

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

Despite its history of being targeted, the Serena's restaurant was one of the few places in Kabul where foreign officials were still permitted to dine, following a Taliban attack in January on a Lebanese restaurant that killed 21 people, including a Pakistani woman and three other UN staff members, and the International Monetary Fund's top representative in Afghanistan.

Earlier on March 20, the Taliban attacked a police station in the southern city of Jalalabad with suicide bombers and gunmen. The assailants killed at least 11 people.

The day before, a marketplace bomb killed at least 15 people in northern Faryab province.