Explosion, Shootings at Kabul's 'Chinese Hotel': 3 Attackers Killed, All Guests Rescued, Says Taliban

Afghanistan?s security forces killed three militants who raided a a hotel in Kabul?s Shar-e-Naw, housing Chinese diplomats and investors on Monday, causing an explosion and gunfire.

The Taliban, in its statement, said: ?The attack on a hotel in Kabul city ended with three attackers being killed by security forces. All guests in the hotel have been rescued and no foreign national was killed. Only two foreign citizens slightly injured when they tried to jump from a window.?

The structure, in one of the main commercial areas of Kabul, is known as ?Chinese Hotel? owing to the number of visitors from the country. The attackers were are also carrying suicide vests and Taliban fighters, too, were injured.

“It was a very loud explosion and then there was a lot of gunfire,? the witness told AFP, while local media also reported similar details.

According to Taliban sources, “We were aware of the possibility of the attack by Pakistan-supported Islamic State (ISIS or IS). An alert was issued in advance." They said that Pakistan was “trying to defame Afghanistan and want it to declare terror state again".

WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?

Pakistan?s Charge d’Affaires in Afghanistan Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani arrived in Islamabad on Monday, three days after being targeted by unidentified gunmen while taking a walk in the Pakistan embassy compound in Kabul.

Ambassador Nizamani escaped unharmed, but his guard was critically injured in the attack claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan chapter (IS) terror group. Pakistan repatriated the wounded guard by helicopter and he was being treated at a hospital. The IS on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a brief statement in Arabic on social media, the terror group?s Khorasan chapter (ISIS-K) claimed that its two members armed with “medium weapons and snipers" targeted the ambassador and his guards who were present in the courtyard of the embassy on Friday.

In response, Pakistan?s Foreign Office (FO) said that it was ?verifying? the claim made by ISIS-K about the attack on its mission in Kabul.

Meanwhile, an official US report to Congress has expressed doubts about the Taliban’s ability to counter the IS, the Dawn newspaper reported on Monday, ?Experts disagree about the potency of the ISKP threat and the Taliban’s self-asserted ability to counter the group without external assistance," the newspaper quoted the report sent this week to Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) as saying.

“An arguably more potent armed threat to the Taliban is the local Islamic State affiliate ISKP, a longtime Taliban adversary," the CRS report said.

THE REACTIONS​

The US had also condemned Friday?s attack on the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan?s capital and called for a full and transparent investigation.

Pakistan had demanded that perpetrators of the attack must be apprehended and brought to justice urgently, an investigation be launched into the serious breach of security of the embassy premises, and that all necessary steps be taken to ensure the security of the diplomatic premises, officers and staff working in Pakistan’s Mission in Kabul and Consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

The attack came days after Pakistan?s deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar flew to Kabul to hold talks with Muttaqi on a range of issues, including the latest threat from Pakistani Taliban who recently ended a months-long ceasefire with Pakistan and asked fighters to resume attacks across the country.

With Agency Inputs

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