"Afghans celebrat[e] the Persian New Year."
You Amurkns didn't know that, did you?
Time to move on:
"Taliban strikes kill 11 people as insurgents target 2 Afghan sites; Militants staging audacious attacks ahead of elections" by Amir Shah | Associated Press March 21, 2014
KABUL — Four gunmen with pistols stuffed into their socks attacked a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners in Afghanistan’s capital Thursday, just hours after militants killed 11 people in an audacious assault on a police station in eastern Afghanistan.
All the assailants were killed in both standoffs, but made their point: Afghan forces face a huge challenge in securing upcoming elections in what will be a major test of their abilities as foreign troops wind down their combat mission at the end of this year.
Then AmeriKa and NATO will just have to keep troops, qui bono?
The attacks show the Taliban are following through on their threat to use violence to disrupt the April 5 vote, which will be the first democratic transfer of power since the 2001 US-led invasion that ousted the Islamist militant movement. President Hamid Karzai is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.
See: Saying Goodbye to Karzai
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault on the Serena hotel and the earlier attack in Jalalabad, an economic hub near the border with Pakistan.
‘‘Our people, if they decide to attack any place, they can do it,’’ he said.
The violence began before dawn Thursday....
Not a Happy New Year celebration for some.
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"Journalist, family among 9 killed in attack at Kabul hotel" by Kim Gamel | Associated Press March 22, 2014
KABUL — The luxury hotel was considered one of the safest spots in the Afghan capital. Yet four gunmen walked in, proceeded to the restaurant and pulled out pistols hidden in their shoes. They killed nine people, including an Agence France-Presse journalist, his wife, and two of their children, who were shot in the head.
The Taliban boasted that the bold assault Thursday night shows they can strike anywhere, and Afghan officials issued a string of conflicting statements as they scrambled to explain how the attackers penetrated the Serena Hotel’s tight security.
Already stinks to high heaven of a false flag!
It was a major embarrassment to government security forces less than two weeks before the April 5 national elections, and follows an increase in bombings and shootings targeting foreigners in the capital, which had been relatively rare.
I find that is secondary to the dead bodies, but....
A Swedish journalist was shot earlier this month and a Lebanese restaurant popular with foreigners was attacked by a suicide bomber and gunmen in January.
The attack in the Serena was particularly brazen because it was considered one of the best-protected sites for civilians in Kabul.
Sheltered behind a nondescript wall, the hotel requires entrants to pass through a security room at the gate where they are patted down and go through a metal detector as bags are put through an X-ray machine and sometimes searched.
The attackers hid small pistols and ammunition in their shoes and socks, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters, but he could not say how the weapons went undetected. The hotel security has been known in the past not always to act when the metal detector beeps.
What crap!
Café Zarnegar was packed with foreigners as well as Afghans celebrating the eve of the Persian New Year, Nowruz. The hotel is popular among foreign aid workers, journalists, contractors, and diplomats who often come for brunch or dinner.
The dead included five Afghans, two Canadians, an American, and a Paraguayan. Six people were wounded, including a child, a foreigner, two police officers, a hotel guard, and an Afghan lawmaker.
A US official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that an American citizen was killed in the attack. The victim has not been identified.
Officials have changed their story several times since the attack began to unfold. They later attributed the confusion to the chaos and the need to protect the hotel guests.
What is known is....
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"Foreign agency blamed in Afghanistan hotel attack" | Associated Press March 24, 2014
KABUL — The Afghan president’s office said its spy agency believes a foreign intelligence service, not the country’s main militant groups, was behind the attack on a Kabul hotel last week that killed nine people, including two children and four foreigners....
I'm thinking CIA agents or assets!
It did not specify which country was purportedly responsible for the assault, but Afghanistan routinely accuses Pakistan of sending militants across the border to wage attacks. Pakistan did not comment on the allegations.
Afghanistan’s National Security Council was also told that a Pakistani diplomat was spotted filming inside the Serena Hotel ‘‘a while ago,’’ seeming to suggest that the incident was connected to Friday’s horrific assault in which four gunmen, their small pistols hidden in their shoes, slipped passed the hotel security.
C'mon!
Once inside the hotel, they opened fire in a restaurant.
A senior reporter of Agence France-Presse, Sardar Ahmad, died in the rampage along with his wife and two young children. Two Canadians, an American, a Paraguayan, and a fifth Afghan were also among the dead. The American has not been publicly identified. Sardar and his family were buried Sunday.
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"Taliban militants attack charity and day-care center" | Associated Press March 29, 2014
KABUL — Taliban militants attacked the residence of an American charity and a nearby day-care center Friday in Kabul, sending foreigners — including women and children — fleeing while Afghan security forces battled the gunmen holed up in the building....
An uptick in bold attacks on foreigners in the Afghan capital suggests the Taliban are shifting tactics to focus on civilian targets that are not as heavily protected as military and government installations, as part of an overall surge in violence ahead of April 5 elections.
Why would they do that when they were winning the public opinion war?
STINK!
It also appears aimed at sending a message that the United States and its allies aren’t wanted as the Obama administration presses the Afghan government to sign a security agreement that would allow thousands of international troops to stay after the NATO-mandated combat mission ends in December.
At the SAME TIME SENDING the MESSAGE that they are NEEDED?
The assault Friday evening began in a way typical for the Taliban, which claimed responsibility in a statement....
Why would I believe a lying, war-promoting paper after decades of deceptions?
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