Taliban attacks Kabul hotel

June 22nd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Updated at 9:56 p.m. ET: Afghan Taliban gunmen, some armed with rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, have attacked a hotel at Kabul’s popular Qargha Lake recreation area and taken hostages, Afghan police said on Friday.

“It would be very easy for police to kill them, but we are afraid because there are civilians, including women and children, trapped inside. We are waiting for daylight,” said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police investigation unit. Afghan police did not know how many were in the hotel or the number of casualties.

“According to the information we have, they have martyred some of them,” Zahir said, meaning an unknown number of civilians had been killed.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying wealthy Afghans and foreigners used the hotel to have “wild parties” in the lead up to the Friday religious day holiday.

Zahir said there was a private party for wealthy Afghans underway inside the hotel when the attack began. Many guests jumped into the lake to escape the assault, he said.

The attack had been underway for more than four hours as dawn broke over Kabul.

Qargha Lake is one of Kabul’s few alternatives for weekend getaways. Restaurants and hotels that dot the shore are popular with Afghan government officials and businessmen, particularly on Thursday nights.

The attack recalls the Taliban commando takeover a year ago of the Intercontinental Hotel on a Kabul hillside that left at least 19 dead, according to news reports at the time. Like the Spozhmai Hotel, the Intercontinental was favored by well-heeled Afghans more than foreigners.

Authorities are about midway through a transition process during which security responsibility is being handed from NATO-led foreign troops to Afghan forces.

Afghan police and soldiers have had security responsibility for Kabul for some time but there have been periodic attacks in the capital, with many blamed on the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network of militants.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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