Six killed in assault on Kabul hotel

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Striking at a prime symbol of the Western presence in Afghanistan, assailants armed with grenades, assault rifles and suicide vests stormed a heavily fortified luxury hotel in the heart of the capital Monday. The carefully coordinated assault killed at least six people, leaving trails of blood in the marble-floored lobby and forcing terrorized guests to cower behind locked doors or in the basement awaiting rescue.

The attack on the Serena Hotel, an incongruously deluxe five-star establishment in rundown Kabul that is frequented by foreign delegations, Western aid workers and high-ranking Afghan officials, was the boldest such assault in recent memory.

The U.S. State Department said that one American, not a government employee, was among those killed. The victim's name was not immediately released because relatives had not yet been notified.

Another victim was a Norwegian journalist covering the visit to Kabul by Norway's foreign minister. Carsten Thomassen of the Dagbladet newspaper died from injuries sustained in the attack, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"We mourn the loss," CPJ Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz said. "Foreign and local journalists face numerous threats in countries like Afghanistan, where security is a rare commodity."

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was also staying in the hotel, was unhurt, news agencies reported, citing Norway's public broadcaster NRK. Several Norwegian journalists and embassy officials were believed to have been in the hotel at the time of the attack, apparently carried out by at least four assailants.

The Taliban, which was ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack almost as soon as it had taken place Monday night. In a city where most people hurry home before dark, many were unaware that the assault had occurred.

A U.S. military official in Kabul, interviewed on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said dozens of American troops in Humvees converged on the hotel after receiving a panicked call for help from Afghan counterparts shortly after 6:15 p.m.

The 177-room hotel, in the center of a busy Kabul district and almost adjacent to the presidential palace, is walled off and guarded with a fortified gate and blast barriers. The lobby is set back from the street entrance to the hotel compound, and all vehicles are searched before entering.