Kabul, the hotel siege, twenty deaths

Taliban command of a fierce almost certainly members of the Haqqani Network violent, attacked last night for a hotel-restaurant on the edge of a lake not far from Kabul, taking hostage 40 people and engaging with the Afghan security forces and an international battle lasting over 12 hours, ended with a massacre of civilians and at least 23 deaths. Although not perfectly match, the budgets of the Kabul police and Interior Ministry have indicated that the victims are 14 or 15 civilians, is not to mention the restaurant's three private security guards, a police officer and five (but c ' you even say seven) Taliban. The insurgents went into action before the 24, by investing with heavy weapons and hand grenades Spozhmai Hotel, a half hour's drive from the capital in the open countryside on Lake Qargha - considered one of the most popular walking and picnic middle-class town - where he was being a crowded and noisy party. Despite the attempt to contrast the reduced security services at the scene, the Taliban have managed to penetrate into the restaurant and trincerarvisi, taking hostage hundreds of clients, including many children and women, ridottisi then about 40 after the first intervention of ' Afghan army and police. Commenting on the massacre, General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF, under NATO command), said that "the Afghan National Forces and Coalition military sources agree that this attack ports the signature of the Haqqani Network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan, (by attacking bases) safe in Pakistan. " This was echoed by President Hamid Karzai for which the insurgents are desperate."The attack on a picnic - he said - is really a sign of defeat of the enemies of Afghanistan". Entire families terrorized, while bullets flew in every direction, they tried to escape the tragedy taking refuge under tables or running to the garden. Eyewitnesses reported that many have not hesitated to break with the body by jumping out the windows, while others dived into the lake to reach a far bank. Afghan media said it was the largest seizure of persons made ​​by the Taliban since Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001. In claim their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the attack was decided because "there are things immoral place." In a statement on their website on the Internet said that the insurgents have stormed the hotel and another neighbor ' are centers of obscenity and vulgarity, attended by officers lustful foreigners and Afghans "who" will also organize meetings anti-Islamic. " TV and radio have followed minute by minute events, describing scenes of panic and discovered the terrible scene at the end of the attack with young people, often in Western clothes, butchered, and murdered people in cold blood while they were drinking or eating. The darkness of the night made ​​harder work of the Afghan security forces, ISAF spokesman said, however, have assumed responsibility for the operation, backed by helicopters and elite units of the International Coalition. 'Paralyzed for several hours, the situation has brightened up again after sunrise, when the gunfire and explosions resumed. It is at this stage that has had the largest number of civilian casualties. Then, before 12, the police chief of Kabul, Ayoub Salangi, has announced that all was over and that security forces had regained full control of the hotel-restaurant.