Leader of attack on Kabul Hotel killed by aircraft of the NATO - The Guardian

A military helicopter of the NATO plane on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, after he was attacked by fighters Taliban photography: S Sabawoon/EPA

The NATO planes killed one insurgent linked to a deadly attack hotel in the Afghan capital, this week, the coalition said a raid raises questions about whether if Afghan forces are prepared for the impending transition of security.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Intercontinental, one of two major hotels used by foreigners and representatives of the Afghan Government, a rare nighttime raid which began Tuesday and ended five hours later with 12 killed.

However, the International Security Assistance Force led by NATO (ISAF) said that the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network had also participated in the assault by nine suicide bombers and gunmen.

ISAF has identified the leader of the Haqqani network, killed in an air attack: Jan Ismail, described as a Deputy to the senior Commander Haqqani in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan.

He said Thursday he and "several Haqqani fighters" were killed in an air attack in the province of Paktia Gardez district South of Kabul on Wednesday.

"The Haqqani network, in conjunction with Taliban secret agents, was responsible for the attack on Tuesday night at the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul, which killed 12 people, including a provincial judge," ISAF said in a statement.

The raid came only a week after the President of United States, Barack Obama, announced the progressive withdrawal of combat troops, with 10 000 to leave at the end of this year and 23 000 more at the end of September 2012.

Announcement of the Obama prior to the beginning of a gradual transition of responsibility to the Afghan forces next month that will end with all foreign combat troops, leaving the Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

This process to begin in seven fields next month, the raid on the hotel raised serious questions about whether the Afghan forces, including the police, were ready to support.

"It shows one of the concerns is that the Afghan security forces is more in quantity, not quality," said Thomas Ruttig, Co-Director of the network based in Kabul to Afghanistan analysts.

The attack ended when a helicopter of the NATO sniper killed the last three attackers fighting from the roof of the hotel. Earlier television images showed the Afghan forces firing heavily in the air.

ISAF training of members of the Afghan national police of 126,000 - strong since 2009.

Afghan police, who will be the front line of security transition in towns and villages across the Afghanistan, have long been considered inept and behind the formation of the dindisie army, which was the subject of the efforts of training since the Taliban was overthrown late 2001.

Violence has increased to record levels in Afghanistan over the past 18 months as NATO troops, especially, American forces struck against a growing insurgency, especially in the heart of the Taliban in the South.

A quarterly report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Security Council on the Afghanistan concluded that the number of incidents of security since March had increased 51% over the same period in 2010, with suicide bombings rises sharply.

Attacks in the heart of the Taliban in Kandahar have been particular concern. "The city of Kandahar and its environs recording the majority of incidents during the reporting period, with a quarter of global attacks" and more than half of all registered killings countrywide, the report said.

But, Ruttig, stated that also developed attack revealed that the other difficulties encountered in Afghanistan before the start of the transition process, which also includes the delivery to Afghans the functioning of civil institutions and projects.

Is policy paralysis prevailing in the country for months.

"The fact that NATO and the Afghan people were able to avoid that it says something - which must be something more than just the security of the transition," Ruttig said the hotel attack.

"Security forces are only part of the transition." It must also be a strengthening of political institutions and, at the moment, the parliamentary crisis has brought political to a standstill, "he told Reuters."

Last week a Court of special election created by a decree by President Hamid Karzai, cancelled the results of a quarter of parliamentary seats since the elections of last year, effectively throwing 62 MPs who had been declared winners.

The move and the Court itself, were tagged unconstitutional and illegal by observers and Afghan officials to the West. Critics have said that the Court has been put in place by Karzai to pursue its own political opposition of the order of the day and silence.

Attack on Kabul Hotel: Afghan officials be deterred by "Enemy Coward" - ABC News

Afghan officials said today they would not be deterred by the "cowardly enemies" who attacked Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul late Tuesday night in a brazen attack that left 20 dead.

"The transition process will be, and these cowardly enemies will not stop our plans," Ashraf Ghani transition Committee Chairman said, according to Associated Press.

More than five hours after the insurgents triggered a deadly Kabul Intercontinental Hotel Tuesday assault commandos night, Afghan night vision goggles was able to return to the hotel with the help of the NATO forces special operations - but not before nine civilians, the two police officers and the nine attackers were killed. The Taliban claimed the attack shortly after the start.

Afghan officials, including provincial governors, were having dinner at the Intercontinental ahead of a Conference on the transition of security that begins today, but none have been killed in the attack, Afghan Interior Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi said. Afghan forces are scheduled to take charge of security in some parts of the country from July.

Earlier this month following President Obama ordered the army to withdraw more than 30,000 soldiers of the Afghanistan by the summer 2012, part of a three year and a half transition plan that will provide some security features in seven provinces and cities of the police and the Afghan army. Tuesday attack, Obama, said today, shows that U.S. in the country "is not working."

"The Taliban are still active [and] it is still being of events like that on occassion," Obama said in a press conference. "[But] Kabul is much safer was." Afghan forces in Kabul are much more capable than they were. Which does not mean that they will not be events as this potentially is and probably will for a period of time. »

NATO ends standoff with rockets

At least a suicide bomber explodes himself at the entrance of the hotel late Tuesday evening, and at least four explosions were heard.

But the battle ended only after special operations forces troops in a NATO helicopter overflew the hotel shot three insurgents on the roof. Two Americans were in the hotel attack, but the two survived, according to the United States Embassy in Kabul. A Spanish pilot was killed in the attack, according to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who expressed his condolences in a press release.

It is not known if there were a particular target in the hotel, located on a hill overlooking the city, or if the target was the hotel itself.

The attack occurred while the guests were having dinner and at least two marriages took place. Police said they cut the power at the hotel and the area surrounding whole, cordoning off streets leading to the hotel.

The Intercontinental Hotel is the most famous hotel in Afghanistan and one of the icons of Kabul, where many Western and Afghan officials remain and hold meetings.

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Ten people killed in the attack on Kabul Hotel - voice of America

Afghan security officer directing vehicles near the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, June 28, 2011

At least six suicide bombers and gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul, late Tuesday and early reports indicate that 10 people were killed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack of the Intercontinental Hotel.   Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said the Group was targeting foreign guests, and that the attackers were killed or wounded at least 50 people.  However, the Taliban often exaggerates the number of victims in attacks against Western and Afghan Government targets.

The head of the Kabul police crime unit, Mohammad Zahir, said that several police officers were injured in the fighting, while witnesses reported at least three loud explosions and gunfire inside and outside the hotel.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Sidiq Sidiqqi said the suicide bombers detonated themselves or were killed and two Taliban insurgents have continued to fire from the roof Wednesday at the start.

Police blocked streets leading to the hotel, situated on a hill that overlooks the Afghan capital and said that the entire area in darkness.  Shortly after, the national army Afghan commando unit arrived on the scene.

The attack occurred on the eve of a Conference on the gradual transition of responsibility civilian and military forces to the Afghan people.

In other acts of violence Tuesday, NATO said three of its members in service are dead in attacks by insurgents and separate bomb in the South of the Afghanistan.

Also in the South, the authorities have declared a bomb killed two women and wounded a child in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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Troops from the NATO 6 killed in attack at Afghanistan (PA) (Yahoo!)

By HEIDI VOGT and MIRWAIS KHAN, Associated Press Heidi Vogt and Mirwais Khan, Associated Press - ago hours 3 mins

Kabul, Afghanistan - a suicide attacker blew a minibus packed with explosives near the doors of a military base in the South of the Afghanistan Sunday, killing six and two Afghan soldiers, NATO troops responsible for said.

Said Afghan officials that the attack took place in Zhari district of Kandahar province where United States contributed troops this summer for a thrust forces to try to prevent the Taliban bastions of the South.

Abdul Hamid, the Afghan national army and head of the province, said that the attacker driving a minibus at the entrance of the base Sunday morning as vehicles were preparing to move a patrol.

"They were leaving the compound and at the same time, the minibus attacked and hit right at the entrance of the base," Hamid said.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying: the insurgent group was retaliation all attacks on them in the region in recent months.

Only NATO declared that service members were killed by rebel attack and declined to identify their nationality. Most of the troops from NATO in the South are American. International troops more than 670 killed so far this year, well above the 502 killed throughout 2009.

Attack on Sunday was the second incident in two weeks to kill so many members of the service. November 29, a sound activated Afghan police weapon its American trainers East, killing six of them until he was shot. The Taliban claimed that they had sent him to join the police as a sleeper agent. Prior to this, five American soldiers were killed insurgent attack on 14 November on their unity in the East of the Afghanistan.

Also Sunday, said NATO a joint force of NATO-Afghanistan killed a Taliban leader and captured a member key from another activist in the East.

Taliban leader participated in the smuggling of weapons and attacks in the Eastern province of Wardak, according to a statement. NATO he identified only by his surname, Fedahi.

NATO said two men threatened coalition that entry into compound Saturday evening where they had heard about Fedahi staying troops. They shot and killed two men, one was later identified as Fedahi, said the Declaration. Told civil steps were harmed in the operation.

Of a separate raid in the Eastern province of Khost Saturday night, troops from the NATO and the Afghanistan captured the Haqqani network leader, a Taliban faction based Pakistan linked to al-Qaeda.

Coalition troops boarded the insurgents in an enclosure in the said district of Terayzai, NATO. The prisoner, he said, led attacks bomb and ambushes against Afghan and coalition troops.