12 killed as militants storm UN guesthouse in Kabul (Roundup)

By Farhad Peikar Oct 28, 2009, 12:02 GMT

   Kabul - Twelve people, including one US national and five other UN workers, were killed Wednesday when an explosion rocked a guesthouse used by the United Nations in central Kabul and armed attackers burst in shooting, officials said.

   The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was the beginning of assaults aimed at disrupting the November 7 presidential runoff.

   The UN special envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told reporters in Kabul that the world body was not deterred by the attack, vowing that the UN would remain committed to helping the Afghan people.

   The assault killed six foreign staff members of the UN and injured at least nine of its personnel, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said.

   A US national working for the UN was among the dead, a US embassy statement said. The 'brutal attack' left 'us shocked and saddened,' it said.

   Two Afghan security officers and the three attackers were also killed in the explosion and firefight, said Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of the criminal investigation department of the Kabul police.

   A civilian watching the combat from the second floor of his house also died when a bullet struck him in the head, Sayedzada said.

   The official said two foreigners working for the United Nations were wounded and seven were rescued by security forces.

   A police official at the scene said the firefight inside the guesthouse, which is in a neighbourhood where offices and residential compounds for expatriates are located, lasted an hour and a half.

   'When I heard the firing, I came out of my room,' said Ahmad Munir, 30, who was guarding another compound in the same street. 'There were men and women shouting in English in that house. I could not go because my responsibility is to protect this house.'

   Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location that five Taliban fighters equipped with suicide vests and weapons stormed the guesthouse, targeting UN staff working on next month's presidential runoff.

   The Taliban had warned at the weekend that it would target all Afghans and foreigners working on the November 7 election, and Mujahid said the strike in Kabul was the beginning of such attacks.

   'It is the start of mujahedin operation on elections,' he said.

   The militants also warned Afghan voters to stay away from polling centres during the second round of the voting or face violence. Dozens of people, including civilians, were killed during the first round on August 20.

   A UN-backed investigation discounted about 1 million fabricated votes for President Hamid Karzai, or a third of his votes, forcing him into a runoff with his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, the second-place finisher from the August polls.

   Karzai condemned Wednesday's 'heinous' and 'inhumane' attack and instructed security agencies to reinforce security at foreign installations in the country, his office said in a statement.

   'This attack will not deter the UN from continuing all its work to reconstruct a war-torn country and to build a better future for all Afghans,' Eide said.

   'We will remain committed to the people of Afghanistan,' he said while adding, 'We do, of course, review our security measures regularly in light of the prevailing security situation.'

   Meanwhile, two rockets were fired into Kabul Wednesday. Sayedzada said one hit the main building of the Serena Hotel, Kabul's only five-star hotel, which is located near the presidential palace, while the other struck a park near the hotel, causing no casualties.

   Police cordoned off the area around the hotel, which was the scene of a suicide bombing in January 2008 that killed six people, and police vehicles and fire trucks rushed to the scene.

   Taliban militants have stormed buildings in the Afghan capital recently, including government offices and a bank a day before the August 20 presidential election. The Taliban had substantially increased their attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan ahead of the August balloting.

   Wednesday's fatality took to 25 the number of American soldiers and civilians killed in Afghanistan in Taliban attacks and other incidents since Saturday. With 55 US nationals killed in October, the month became the deadliest for US forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

   An unknown number of foreign UN staff members and civilians were in the guesthouse at the time of the attack, Siddique said.

   The nationalities of the other five casualties were not yet available, he said.