Breaking: Hotel in Kabul Under Attack by Suicide Bombers
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
Update: Allahpundit at Hot Air has a lot more details, and names the fear I have reading about this: “Sounds … Mumbai-esque.”
This is happening now, so expect the facts to be murky, but here’s what ABC News is saying right now:
In one of the most significant attacks in Afghanistan in the past few years, insurgents have hit a landmark Kabul hotel popular with foreigners with as many as 6 suicide bombers and gunmen, according to police.
At least one suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the Intercontinental Hotel, and the attack is still ongoing. At least four explosions have been heard and gunfire continues.
A police official says there are at least 3 attackers, but the number could be double that. An Afghan news agency is reporting that at least 10 people have died, but that figure has not been independently confirmed.
So basically a terrorist attack of some kind is happening, and we don’t know all the details yet, which is understandable given the distance. Needless to say, be very reluctant to trust any accounts coming out of there.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
my only point in commenting here is that i think you guys haven’t seen this yet…
(either that, or there isn’t much to say)
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:19 pmI was downtown NYC Sept 11. I don’t live there anymore but I still go often for work.
Every time I hear about something like this I get the serious chills.
I hate this [censored]
[Please don’t curse. It causes your comment to be filtered. Although I understand the desire to in this case.–Aaron]
Blackburnsghost (2ffb0c) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:28 pmThis sounds like Mumbai.
Dianna (23319c) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:30 pmTime to go kill some sand Nazis!
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:39 pmThanks for posting Aaron.
Some of you might be interested in Michael Yon’s account of life in Afghanistan. He’s an author/photographer/columnist etc. – he’s in Kabul right now but not at the IC Hotel.
You can follow him at Twitter & on FB.
http://twitter.com/#!/michael_yon
He last posted that he could hear bombs going off but wasn’t close enough to hear small arms fire. It’s about 12:45 am there – I’m sure he’ll have lots of info come morning.
His photos are great, BTW.
Miranda (4104db) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:49 pmLemme guess – the Episcopalians struck again?
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (63ecb9) — 6/28/2011 @ 1:49 pmThere’s really only one organization with the expertise to do this, and that’s Pakistan’s rogue miklitary intelligence agency, the ISI (InterServices Intelligence Agency)
Perhaps the idea is to chase the U.S. out of Afghanistan sooner. If so, it won’t work – Obama will stick to his exact decisions, and won;t alter them left or right, nor is this likely to make Republicans want to exit faster. If teh Taliban etc were winning some other way – maybe – but not with suicide bombs.
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 6/28/2011 @ 2:31 pmI pray that Allah gets to welcome lots of splodeydopes to their skewed idea of heaven, while sparing the lives of non-splodeydopes.
JD (b98cae) — 6/28/2011 @ 2:38 pmAnd who did Mumbai? Pakistan’s rogue military intelligence agency – the same people who protected bin Laden – the same people on the laptop of bin Laden’s courier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html?scp=8&sq=pakistan&st=cse
Seized Phone Offers Clues to Bin Laden’s Pakistani Links
“The discovery indicates that Bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside the country, the officials and others said. But it also raised tantalizing questions about whether the group and others like it helped shelter and support Bin Laden on behalf of Pakistan’s spy agency, given that it had mentored Harakat and allowed it to operate in Pakistan for at least 20 years, the officials and analysts said.
In tracing the calls on the cellphone, American analysts have determined that Harakat commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials, the senior American officials said. One said they had met. The officials added that the contacts were not necessarily about Bin Laden and his protection and that there was no “smoking gun” showing that Pakistan’s spy agency had protected Bin Laden.”
…..
“The revelation also provides a potentially critical piece of the puzzle about Bin Laden’s secret odyssey after he slipped away from American forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan nearly 10 years ago. It may help answer how and why Bin Laden or his protectors chose Abbottabad, where he was killed in a raid by a Navy Seals team on May 2.
Harakat has especially deep roots in the area around Abbottabad, and the network provided by the group would have enhanced Bin Laden’s ability to live and function in Pakistan, analysts familiar with the group said. Its leaders have strong ties with both Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence, and they can roam widely because they are Pakistanis, something the foreigners who make up Al Qaeda’s ranks cannot do.
Even today, the group’s leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, long one of Bin Laden’s closest Pakistani associates, lives unbothered by Pakistani authorities on the outskirts of Islamabad. ”
….
“‘Harakat “is one of the oldest and closest allies of Al Qaeda, and they are very, very close to the ISI,” said Bruce O. Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and the author of “Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad.”
“The question of ISI and Pakistani Army complicity in Bin Laden’s hide-out now hangs like a dark cloud over the entire relationship” between Pakistan and the United States, Mr. Riedel added. ”
…
“A report by the Pakistani Interior Ministry said that Mr. Akhtar had visited Bin Laden in August 2009 near the border with Afghanistan to discuss jihadist operations against Pakistan, according to an account that was published in the Pakistani newspaper The Daily Times in 2010.
It is the only recorded episode showing that Bin Laden’s presence inside Pakistan was known to Pakistani intelligence, until the American raid that killed him. ”
(Of course this visit near the border was disinformation about bi Ladens whereabouts.)
See also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/asia/15policy.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=pakistan&st=cse
Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid
(there’s bene no follow-up – Pakistan denies it -maybe they released them – US govt is keeping whole thing hush hush
“For now, at least, America’s relationship with Pakistan keeps getting tripped up. When he visited Pakistan, Mr. Panetta offered evidence of collusion between Pakistani security officials and the militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.”
The better for them to plug leaks???
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 6/28/2011 @ 2:40 pmmiranda
second that, completely.
this brings home that AQ is a greater danger to muslims than to christians. we have common cause against them.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/28/2011 @ 2:40 pmIt’s actually worse than that, sammy, Effendi Khalil, was actually part of a government delegation negotiating the siege of the Red Mosque, some years ago, The Times, and apparently
ian cormac (72470d) — 6/28/2011 @ 2:52 pmthe CIA didn’t point out Farooq Kashmiri, was
the operational head of the group.
THANK YOU for posting this! I’m very glad I found your blog!!
Steve
Steve (88e6e2) — 6/28/2011 @ 6:07 pmCommon Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
Mike Ejercitos line was funny, it’s a guilty pleasure “kinda funny” that line(I hate myself for taking pleasure in “twisted humor like that). JD’s spodeydope, what the heck is a spodeydope? Funny though..
The Tamandua (4de175) — 6/29/2011 @ 4:52 pmWhen I think of the line, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”, I think of a picture of the late Cardinal Spellman, wearing a cassock, beretta and pectoral cross, while totting an m-1 carbine complete with bayonet. He was one tough cleric, but very virtuous, and did much good in the foreign missions.
The Tamandua (4de175) — 6/29/2011 @ 4:59 pm