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Journalist Among 9 Killed in Afghan Attack Illusion of Safety at Afghan Haven Is Shattered
(about 11 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Handguns tucked into their socks, four gunmen slipped inside the luxurious Serena Hotel in Kabul on Thursday night and launched an attack that killed at least nine people, including four foreigners. Among the dead were an Afghan journalist and four members of his family who were celebrating the Persian New Year and a former Paraguayan diplomat who had come to Afghanistan to observe next month’s elections. KABUL, Afghanistan — His handgun drawn, the clean-cut insurgent stood in the restaurant of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, listening to the mother of three as she begged, “Take my life, but please don’t kill my kids.”
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, reinforcing fears that the election to replace President Hamid Karzai will be accompanied by widening bloodshed. A series of attacks have made it apparent that Afghan and foreign civilians are likely to bear the brunt of the violence, which in the past two weeks has ranged from a suicide bombing at a bazaar in northern Afghanistan to an assassination of a Swedish journalist on a crowded Kabul street. Her pleading made no difference. As frightened hotel staff members watched from the kitchen, the young militant shot the children first before killing their mother, some of the first casualties inflicted by four Taliban attackers who rampaged through the luxurious hotel on Thursday. The assault killed at least nine people and struck at the heart of the fortified existence enjoyed here by Westerners and the moneyed Afghan elite.
With its high walls and heavy fortifications, the Serena was a magnet for foreign dignitaries and officials, along with well-heeled Afghans, who flocked to the hotel’s restaurants, coffee shop and full-service spa. The fallout from the attack was swift, with the National Democratic Institute deciding on Friday morning to pull its staff from Afghanistan. Its staff members were staying at the Serena. With its high walls and heavy fortifications, the Serena was a magnet for foreign dignitaries and officials, along with well-heeled Afghans, who flocked to its restaurants, coffee shop and full-service spa. Many international organizations also put up visiting staff members there, confident in the metal detectors and multiple checkpoints manned by guards armed with assault rifles that were erected after a 2008 attack on the hotel left six dead.
Other observer missions and international organizations were weighing whether they could stay on, and it appeared certain that security concerns would further diminish the already limited international role in the election. The vote is scheduled for April 5. Thursday’s attack shattered the illusions of the Serena as one of the few remaining safe havens for the rich or foreign in Kabul, and the fallout was swift. The National Democratic Institute decided on Friday morning to pull out staff members who were staying at the hotel after one of them, Luis María Duarte, a former Paraguayan diplomat, was killed. Mr. Duarte and the other staff members were in Afghanistan to observe next month’s presidential election, and the organization was reassessing its election monitoring activities.
“The attack certainly was aimed at scaring Afghans and disrupting the Afghan election process,” said Sediq Seddiqi, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The other dead in Thursday’s attack included the mother and two of her children, along with their father, Sardar Ahmad, a prominent Afghan journalist. A Canadian, two Bangladeshi nationals and another Afghan woman were also killed.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, reinforcing fears that the election to replace President Hamid Karzai will be accompanied by widening bloodshed. A series of attacks have made it apparent that Afghan and foreign civilians are likely to bear the brunt of the violence, which in the past two weeks has included a suicide bombing at a bazaar in northern Afghanistan and an assassination of a Swedish journalist on a crowded Kabul street.
The spate of attacks has left a number of election observer missions and international organizations weighing whether they could stay on in a city that has become increasingly perilous for Westerners in recent months.
It appeared certain that security concerns would now shrink the already limited international role in the election, scheduled for April 5, further diminishing the chances to document fraud and avert any potential crises in the aftermath of an election that is widely seen as crucial to Afghanistan’s stability as American-led combat forces withdraw from the country.
But the focus on Friday for Afghans and foreigners alike was on mourning the dead and figuring out how the gunmen managed to get inside the Serena.But the focus on Friday for Afghans and foreigners alike was on mourning the dead and figuring out how the gunmen managed to get inside the Serena.
Mr. Seddiqi told reporters that the attack “puts the Serena’s advanced security system under question,” suggesting the assailants may have had inside help. He blamed the attack on the Haqqani Network, a potent Taliban faction that has carried out previous attacks in Kabul, though coalition officials did not immediately confirm his claim. Mr. Ahmad, 40, a reporter for Agence France-Presse, was shot along with his wife and two of his three children, ages 4 and 5, as they celebrated Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at a dinner accompanied by live music.
The Interior Ministry said that four foreigners — from Canada, India, Pakistan and New Zealand — were killed at the Serena. The ministry made no mention of the former Paraguayan diplomat, whose death was instead reported by that country’s foreign minister, Eladio Loizaga, according to Agence-France Presse. The couple’s third child, a toddler, was seriously wounded by a gunshots to the head and an arm, and was in a coma at a nearby hospital.
Among the five Afghan dead was Sardar Ahmad, 40, a reporter for Agence France-Presse, who was shot along with his wife and two of his three children, aged 4 and 5, as they celebrated Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at a dinner accompanied by live music.
Mr. Ahmad’s third child, a toddler, was seriously wounded, and Afghan journalists gathered Friday at the Kabul hospital where he was being treated. The child’s only relatives live abroad, and the journalists were trying to ensure that he received the treatment he needed.
Bronwen Roberts, an Agence France-Presse journalist who worked with Mr. Ahmad in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2009, said he was a stalwart of the agency’s coverage here who enjoyed fishing and reading Afghan poetry and was proud of his young and growing family.Bronwen Roberts, an Agence France-Presse journalist who worked with Mr. Ahmad in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2009, said he was a stalwart of the agency’s coverage here who enjoyed fishing and reading Afghan poetry and was proud of his young and growing family.
“He was heartbroken about what was happening in his country, but he didn’t want to leave because it meant so much to him,” she said by phone from Paris. “He was a romantic soul, a sweet, sweet man.”“He was heartbroken about what was happening in his country, but he didn’t want to leave because it meant so much to him,” she said by phone from Paris. “He was a romantic soul, a sweet, sweet man.”
The wounded also included a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament, Habib Gul Afghan, Mr. Seddiqi said. Dozens of Afghan reporters, distraught over the death of Mr. Ahmad, pledged to embark on a 15-day boycott of all news related to the Taliban, though it was unclear how it would work in a country where insurgency looms over many aspects of life. 
Mr. Seddiqi told reporters that the attackers, who were all young men, entered the hotel saying they were going to eat in one of the complex’s restaurants. The men who searched them at the hotel’s guardroom, which is about 50 yards from the glass-encased lobby, failed to uncover the six small pistols that the assailants had hidden in their socks and shoes, he said. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed the children were not executed but were killed in crossfire. He insisted that the Taliban was not responsible for their deaths, and that Mr. Ahmad was an unintended victim, not a target, of the attack.
The guns were smaller than the size of a hand and had been wrapped in some kind of plastic that masked them from the metal detectors in the guardroom, Mr. Seddiqi said. He did not explain how the plastic would have shielded the guns from detection. Still, he sought to justify the deaths as unfortunate casualties in an “unbalanced war” where air strikes by the American-led coalition have killed Afghan civilians.  But “there is no acceptable way to defend the deaths of these children, and we regret their deaths,” he said in telephone an interview, as a child squealed in background.
Mr. Seddiqi said the men entered some time before the attack began, and two workers at the hotel said they saw the men walking the marble floors of the public areas, asking about when the Nowruz celebrations would start.  Seddiq Seddiqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told reporters the young insurgents managed to sneak guns past the hotel guards and metal detectors by hiding them in their socks and wrapping them in plastic. He did not explain how the plastic would have shielded the guns from detection, and also suggested that the assailants may have had inside help.
From the workers’ accounts, it did not appear that the young men blended seamlessly into the Serena. The sprawling hotel is decorated to resemble a modernist version of a traditional Afghan palace, and its opulence differs starkly from the homes that even prosperous Afghans live in, never mind the mud hovels of the poor villagers form which the insurgent draw most of their fighters. Regardless of how they slipped past security, by the time they walked across the stone driveway and into the lobby, they appeared ready to celebrate, hotel staff said in interviews on Friday. Wearing trimmed beards and smart clothes, they told staff they planned to mark the Persian New Year in the hotel’s elegant dining room, where patrons enjoy nightly buffets of Western and Afghan fare.
Once the Nowruz celebrations began, it appears the attackers acted with deadly certitude. They started their assault on the unarmed guests around 9 p.m. and shot and killed seven people in the restaurant and two in the lobby, Mr. Seddiqi said. But first they wandered around the Serena for a while, staff recalled, taking in its opulence, which differs starkly from the homes that even prosperous Afghans live in, never mind the mud hovels of the poor villagers from which the insurgent draw most of their fighters.
The police quickly cordoned off the area around the hotel, which is less than a mile from the presidential palace. Confusion set in nearly as quickly with authorities struggling to figure out if an attack was underway or if armed guests had gotten into a fight, which is what some initial reports indicated. They even asked staff members when the Nowruz celebrations would start.
Afghan security forces, including special commandos who have repeatedly handled similar situations in Kabul, overcame the attackers before midnight. Two of the attackers were killed in the restaurant and another two in a nearby restroom, Mr. Seddiqi said Then they settled in for their meal. They ate slowly, drawing the suspicion of several Afghans seated nearby in the dining room, according to members of the hotel staff. Mounting tension turned to violence as fearful patrons began throwing plates and glasses at the young insurgents.
The attackers responded by drawing their .25 caliber handguns and opening fire, according to a server in the dining room at the time.
The server, like other hotel worker interviewed, asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the insurgents and Afghan intelligence service, who instructed at least one witness not to speak with reporters.
After killing seven people in the dining room, they quickly moved toward the lobby where another they killed two more people as they came under fire from the hotel’s armed guards.
One guard is believed to have killed an insurgent before his gun jammed, at which point he was shot in the arm, hotel staff members said.
Afghan security forces, including special commandos who have repeatedly handled similar situations in Kabul, overcame the attackers before midnight. Two insurgents were killed in the restaurant and another two in a nearby restroom, Mr. Seddiqi said.
Throughout the attack, frightened guests holed up in their rooms or found shelter in safety bunkers around the complex. Some called friends and colleagues around Kabul, trying to find out what was happening or simply seeking the solace of familiar voices.Throughout the attack, frightened guests holed up in their rooms or found shelter in safety bunkers around the complex. Some called friends and colleagues around Kabul, trying to find out what was happening or simply seeking the solace of familiar voices.
The hotel remained under a heavy security blanket on Friday as workers tried to clean up the lobby, which was bloodstained and littered with shattered glass by the fighting. Afghan civilians were being kept away from the hotel and foreign visitors had to be approved by the guests they were there to visit before entering the complex. The hotel remained under a heavy security blanket. Agents from the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s main intelligence service, commandeered cafe areas within the hotel to conduct interviews with staff and security officers on duty the night of the attack. Others were taken to the intelligence services headquarters for questioning.
The National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, was on the scene, questioning hotel security guards and workers.
The Serena has long been a popular destination for wealthy or prominent visitors to Kabul. Hotel rooms can cost upward of $300 a night, with prices soaring during times of high demand. Ahead of the presidential elections on April 5, rooms at the Serena were fully booked through the coming weeks.
Even before the attack, concerns about security in Kabul had prompted the United Nations to move some of its staff behind the hotel’s high walls, which are guarded around the clock by dozens of security guards armed with assault weapons.
The hotel has also been subjected to repeated attacks by the Taliban, who recently have threatened a surge of assaults to disrupt the elections. With its expatriate clientele and general ambience of luxury, including an outdoor swimming pool that is heated throughout Kabul’s frigid winters, the hotel offers an attractive target for militants.
Recent security reports rated the Serena among the highest-risk locales in the city. But it was also believed to be among the best guarded.