Afghan hotel raid targeted Western civilians

By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - A commando-style suicide raid on Afghanistan's top hotel, frequented by foreigners and diplomats, shows a new style of Taliban attack aimed at soft civilian targets, diplomats and analysts said on Tuesday.

At least seven people, including a number of foreigners, were killed when attackers set off two suicide bombs at Kabul's five-star Serena Hotel and opened fire on guests. The hard-line Islamist Taliban said they carried out the attack.

"Last night's attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul is a matter of very great concern to us, representing as it does a deliberate targeting of foreign guests and Afghan civilians working together in support of Afghanistan," the U.N. acting special representative to Afghanistan, Bo Asplund, said in a statement.

One attacker shot dead a guard at the gate of the hotel to gain entrance to the compound. He was then shot by a second guard and blew up his explosive belt just inside the hotel grounds.

A second attacker then blew himself up at the entrance to the hotel building. "It is unclear whether he was shot dead by the guards or he panicked," Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told a news conference.

The third man entered the hotel and opened fire on guests in the lobby and the hotel gym, killing three American men, a French woman and a Norwegian journalist, before being arrested, Saleh said. The U.S. embassy in Kabul said it had confirmed the death of only one American.

A Filipina spa supervisor died of her wounds on Tuesday.

A fourth man, named Humayoun, who drove the attackers to the hotel but escaped the scene, was arrested on the road east from Kabul towards the city of Jalalabad and the Pakistan border.