KABUL — Terrified U.N. workers scrambled over the roof or leaped from windows to escape choking smoke and gunfire after being awakened at dawn Wednesday when Taliban militants wearing police uniforms stormed a residential hotel packed with foreigners.
The assault, which killed 11 people, including three militants, was one of a series of brazen attacks aimed at undermining the Nov. 7 presidential election runoff.
It underscored the risks facing U.N. and Afghan officials in organizing the vote and the massive challenge for the U.S.-led military force in curbing the insurgency.
Five U.N. employees, including an American, were among those killed at the guest house in Kabul. Nationalities of the other U.N. victims were not released.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assault as well as rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city’s main luxury hotel. The Taliban has warned Afghans that they risk attacks if they do not stay away from the polls for next week’s runoff.
The visibly shaken chief of the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told reporters the attack “will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work” in the country.
The two-hour attack began shortly before 6 a.m. when three gunmen wearing green uniforms and suicide vests broke into the residential hotel.Exhausted survivors spoke of terror, with flames engulfing much of the building while U.N. guards tried desperately to fight off the attackers.
John Christopher “Chris” Turner of Kansas City, Mo., who works for a trucking company on contract to the U.S. military, said he grabbed an AK-47 rifle, assembled about 25 terrified guests and, along with a Nepalese man, gave covering fire as they led the group into the laundry room and locked themselves in. The group later jumped over a back wall to escape, he said.
Turner called his father in suburban Kansas City after the attack, 82-year-old Lionel Turner told The Associated Press.
“He said he was burned a little but that he wasn’t hurt,” the father said. “He’s got more guts than a Missouri mule.”
