KABUL - Armed men opened fire on Monday inside a hotel in central Kabul in an attack that ended when security forces killed at least three of the gunmen.
Two foreigners were hurt while trying to escape by jumping from a balcony, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted.
Kabul’s Emergency Hospital, run by an Italian non-profit, reported receiving 21 casualties – 18 injured and three dead on arrival.
The assault happened at the Kabul Longan Hotel in Shahr-e-Naw, a commercial and residential neighbourhood in the Afghan capital. A fire broke out on one of the floors. A video posted on Twitter by a journalist in Kabul showed smoke billowing out of a multistorey building, with one lower floor on fire.
Residents of the area said the hotel was where Chinese and other foreigners usually stay. They said they heard a powerful explosion prior to the shooting.
A video on social media showed people climbing out of windows on the lower floors of the building, with the hotel sign – in English and Chinese – visible.
Other videos showed huge flames licking out of another section, with thick plumes of smoke. A helicopter also made several passes of the area.
The attack came a day after China’s ambassador met the Afghan deputy foreign minister to discuss security-related matters and sought more attention on the protection of its embassy.
The Kabul Longan Hotel is popular with Chinese business visitors, who have flocked to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return in pursuit of high-risk but potentially lucrative business deals.
China, which shares a rugged 76km border with Afghanistan, has not officially recognised the Taliban government but is one of the few countries to maintain a full diplomatic presence in Kabul.
Beijing has long feared Afghanistan could become a staging point for minority Uighur separatists in China’s sensitive border region of Xinjiang.
The Taliban promised that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants and, in exchange, China has offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
Maintaining stability after decades of war in Afghanistan is Beijing’s main consideration as it seeks to secure its borders and strategic infrastructure investments in neighbouring Pakistan, home to the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
The Taliban, which seized power after US-led foreign forces withdrew in August 2021, are at pains to portray Afghanistan as safe for diplomats and business people, but two Russian embassy staff were killed in a suicide bombing outside the mission in September in an attack claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The group also claimed responsibility for an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul in December that Islamabad decried as an “assassination attempt” against the ambassador. A security guard was wounded in that attack.
Despite owning the rights to major projects in Afghanistan, notably the Mes Aynak copper mine, China has not pushed any of these projects forward. The Taliban are reliant on China to turn one of the world’s largest copper deposits into a working mine that would help the cash-strapped and sanctions-hit nation recover. REUTERS, AFP
