[Tolo News] The Ministry of Interior Affairs has linked the Haqqani Network to Thursday night's attack on the upscale Serena Hotel in Kabul, where nine civilians, including women, children and four foreign nationals were bumped off by four young assailants. The attack has received wide condemnation from inside and Afghanistan. Four women, two of them foreigners, and two maidens of tender years were killed in the shooting on Afghanistan's New Year's Even, Nawroz. Among those killed was well-known Afghan journalist Sardar Ahmad, a news hound for Agence La Belle France Press (AFP) and the father of the two maidens of tender years.
The four foreigners killed in the attack were citizens of New Zealand, Canada, Pakistain and India, Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) front man Sediq Seddiqi said in a presser on Friday.
The attackers were four gunnies all under the age of 20 wearing traditional Afghan dress. They entered the hotel around 8:30PM local time under the pretence of eating dinner. The attackers walked on the lawn of the hotel for several minutes before two of them broke off into the hall and opened fire on guests indiscriminately, killing nine in minutes.
The MoIA has asserted that the attack was planned beyond Afghanistan's borders and called on the United Nations
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(UN) Security Council to help in identifying those responsible.
"We ask the UN Security Council to join us in condemning the attack and later to help us identify and eliminate those who are equipped outside the country and kill our women and kiddies," Seddiqi said.
"There are questions that remain unanswered, we are waiting for the results of the investigation that we are conducting into those who were assigned to search the four attackers and how the attackers could have passed the security check," he added.
Security officials have said that the attackers covered their pistols with plastic and hid them in the soles of their shoes so they would not be detected
Interior Ministry officials have suggested the attack, which was quickly claimed by the Taliban, was intended to cause problems for the presidential and provincial council elections on April 5. The Taliban have released statements to the press expressly stating the intent to violently disrupt the elections.
Following the attack, the security forces cordoned off the hotel and began a three hour gunbattle with the bad boys. Reportedly, two of the attackers were killed nearly immediately, but the other two were hidden, which prolonged the encounter. At least two guards were maimed.
Security officials were quick to blame Serena security for the failure, saying they had asked the hotel to allow the police to provide security, a request Mr Siddiqi said, was rejected by the management of the Serena. The Hotel, located in downtown Kabul, has long been a popular high-end hangout for foreign nationals, officials and journalists.