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| Afghanistan | |
| Four injured in rocket attack in Afghan capital | |
| 2009-11-22 | |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A rocket attack near the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul has injured four people, including two members of the Afghan security forces, a spokesman for Afghanistan's health ministry said Saturday. One rocket hit the wall of the five-star hotel in downtown Kabul at 6.15 p.m. (1345 GMT), Ahmad Farid Raaid, health ministry spokesman, told AFP. Zamarai Bashary, spokesman for the interior ministry, said: "It was a rocket that hit in front of the Rabia Balkhi hospital. We have four wounded, three are civilians and one is a police officer."
The Serena Hotel, owned by the Aga Khan, was attacked in January 2008 by a commander of the Taliban, with the deaths of eight people. It is Kabul's only five-star hotel and has been heavily-fortified since the 2008 attack. It is the hotel of choice for visiting VIPs. It is occasionally shelled, most recently on Oct. 28, the same day that a U.N. guesthouse came under Taliban attack with the deaths of up to five U.N. staff and two Afghans. That attack led the U.N. to withdraw hundreds of international employees, leaving a skeleton staff at its enormous compound in central Kabul. This latest attack comes two days after President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term, after a controversial election on Aug. 20 that was marred by astounding levels of fraud. He pledged to call a "loya jirga," an inclusive meeting of political, community and religious leaders from across the country, to bring peace to the war-torn country. Karzai also said that the Afghan security forces would be able to take responsibility for the country's security in five years. Eighty Taliban militants laid down their weapons Saturday and joined Afghanistan's police force, accepting a government amnesty aimed at ending the insurgency, police said. In a ceremony at police headquarters in the eastern city of Herat, the 80 men handed over their weapons and pledged to end their fight against the government, said Herat police chief Asmatullah Alizai. "Negotiations have been going on with their commander Solaiman as we have been trying to absorb him into the government," he said, referring to Mula Solaiman, a former border guard commander who changed sides a number of times. | |
| Posted by:Fred |