Taliban attack on luxury hotel in Kabul leaves nine, including foreigners, dead

At least nine civilians including children and foreigners were killed in a Taliban attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan's interior ministry said on Friday, the latest violence to hit the country just weeks before the presidential election. Four teenage gunmen with pistols hidden in their socks managed to penetrate several layers of security at the Serena hotel, a prestigious venue favoured by foreign visitors to the capital, on Thursday night. The attack was claimed by the Taliban, who have vowed a campaign of violence to disrupt the 5 April poll. One of the civilians killed in the attack was a former Paraguayan diplomat who was in Afghanistan as an election observer, Paraguay's Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga said. The attackers reached the hotel's restaurant around 8:30 pm (1600 GMT) and began firing indiscriminately at diners, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told a news conference. Nine people were killed in the assault, five Afghans and four foreigners, he said, and the dead included four women and two children. The foreign nationals were from Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan and India, he said but made no mention of the Paraguayan. The attack ended around 11:30 pm when Afghan security forces killed the last of the attackers, Sediqqi said, adding that most of the hotel guests had been able to take shelter in special safe rooms. The attack occurred on the eve of Nawroz, the Persian New Year which is a major holiday in Afghanistan, and the hotel was hosting special celebrations.