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In Afghan Attack, Death Toll Hits 21, Mostly Foreigners
Taliban Says Kabul Cafe Attack Was Payback for Earlier Strike
(about 4 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 21 people — most of them foreigners — died when the Taliban struck a restaurant popular with Westerners in downtown Kabul, the police said Saturday, as officials described what appeared to be a well-coordinated assault, with a suicide bomber clearing a path for two gunmen who rushed in and fired on diners.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack Friday on a popular Kabul cafe that killed 21 people, mostly Western civilians, saying it was in retaliation for a coalition airstrike earlier in the week in which a number of Afghan civilians had died in a village north of Kabul.
The attack appeared to be one of the deadliest against Western civilians in Kabul since 2001, with Afghan and Western officials saying as many as 13 of the dead were expatriates. The United States Embassy in Kabul said Saturday that two Americans were killed, and Afghan authorities said that among the dead were citizens of Canada, Russia and Lebanon.
In their statement, the Taliban said they picked a restaurant frequented by “high-ranking foreigners” where alcohol was served. The attack, one of the most significant on Western civilians since the start of the war in 2001, occurred in the heart of one of Kabul’s most secure districts, very close to many embassies and coalition military bases.
Though Afghan and Western authorities were still trying to determine the identities of all those killed, the office of Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said in a statement issued late Friday that “four United Nations personnel, along with a number of those from other international organizations, are now confirmed dead." One of those U.N. officials was its chief political affairs officer in Afghanistan, Vadim Nazarov, a longtime employee with the organization here, the Russian Embassy said Saturday. Mr. Nazarov, a Russian, was highly regarded for his years spent on the ground and his understanding of Afghan politics.
Western officials said they were trying to confirm the Taliban’s stated motive for the coordinated attack, which occurred just two days after the airstrike and would have required extensive planning. A suicide bomber had cleared a path for two gunmen who stormed in and fired on diners, the police said.
The International Monetary Fund said its representative in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, was also among those killed. Mr. Abdallah, 60, had served in Afghanistan since 2008, and had managed to maintain a good working relationship with Afghan officials through a series of scandals that left many western officials at odds with their Afghan counterparts.
Westerners who died in Friday’s attack came from America, Canada, Russia, Lebanon and other countries, and included the head of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan and the head of political affairs at the United Nations here, both highly regarded officials who had spent years in the country. Two Americans working at the American University in Afghanistan were also killed in the attack, the university said in a statement Saturday.
The choice of a lightly guarded restaurant was a departure for the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack. The insurgents have more often sought to strike fortified government buildings and high-profile symbols of the Western presence in Afghanistan, like the American Embassy and a building believed to house the C.I.A. station in Kabul.
“The attack was in retaliation to the massacre carried out by foreign invaders 2 days earlier in Parwan province’s Siyah Gerd district, where the enemy airstrikes destroyed up to 10 homes, razed several orchards as well as killing and wounding up to 30 innocent civilians, mostly defenseless women and children,” according to the Taliban statement.
Those attacks have succeeded in generating headlines but have inflicted relatively few casualties in the past few years. A Taliban bombing this month at the entrance to Camp Eggers, a large base for the American-led military coalition in the center of Kabul, did not inflict any casualties, for instance. The base is less than a mile from the restaurant, Taverna du Liban.
After waves of condolences and condemnations over both attacks — from the international coalition, the United Nations, diplomats and ordinary Afghans — the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, whose relationship with the Americans has been strained in recent months over the signing of a long-term security contract, released a statement of his own.
The restaurant, which serves Lebanese food and has a clientele made up largely of expatriates, had almost none of the security enjoyed by official installations, like concrete blast walls or checkpoints blocking off the street it is on.
Mr. Karzai expressed sympathy for the victims of the cafe attack but also seemed to equate it with the airstrike, which had been called in by Afghan and American forces who were under fire.
The initial blast appeared to have been powerful. It was heard miles away and shook windows in the immediate neighborhood, which is home to numerous embassies and shops that serve Western aid workers, journalists and other foreign civilians who live in the city.
“The war on terror will bear fruit when victims and terrorists are distinguished from each other and the elements of terror are fought against,” said Mr. Karzai, who appointed a committee to investigate the civilian casualties from the strike. “If NATO, led by the United States, wants to be Afghan people’s ally, they should target terrorism.”
The Taliban claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties and said they had killed a high-ranking German official. In a statement Saturday morning, the Taliban said the assault, which was meant to strike “high-ranking foreigners,” was conducted in retaliation for a recent coalition airstrike that claimed the lives of many civilians.
The head of the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the Afghan police, suspended the commander and intelligence officer in charge of the district where the restaurant is and placed them under investigation.
“The attack was in retaliation to the massacre carried out by foreign invaders two days earlier in Parwan province’s Siyah Gerd district where the enemy airstrikes destroyed up to 10 homes, razed several orchards as well as killing and wounding up to 30 innocent civilians mostly defenseless women and children,” the Taliban said in the statement.
Kabul appeared to return to normal Saturday, with a slightly heavier police presence visible along its traffic-choked streets, especially near the roundabout where the cafe attack occurred. While bombings are not uncommon in Kabul, the extent of the damage and the targeting of Western civilians raised alarms across the country.
The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, reached by phone, would say only that it was “dealing with the incident and is working hard to clarify the facts.”
Some international organizations tightened security, clamping down on the modest freedom of movement enjoyed by foreigners working in Kabul. United Nations officials, meeting privately, vowed not to adopt a “bunker mentality” in response to the attacks, which claimed the lives of four if its personnel, including two from the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Hashmatullah Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said on Saturday morning that the death toll in the attack stood at 21, including the 13 foreigners. The Afghans killed were believed to included the restaurant’s owner and the men who guarded its front door.
It is thought that the only people who escaped the cafe attack were local employees of the restaurant, some of whom jumped through a second-floor window.
Most, if not all, of the foreigners killed or wounded were likely to have been civilians; coalition service members are rarely allowed to go to restaurants or socialize outside their bases.
The chief political affairs officer for the United Nations in Afghanistan, Vadim Nazarov, a longtime official with the agency, was killed in the attack, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been made public. Mr. Nazarov, a Russian, was highly regarded for his years spent in Afghanistan and his understanding of the Afghan political context.
The American Embassy said all United States diplomats, development workers and other officials based in Kabul were accounted for. It had no information on whether other American citizens might be among the dead.
The International Monetary Fund said its representative in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, was also among those killed. Mr. Abdallah, 60, had served in Afghanistan since 2008 and had managed to forge a good working relationship with Afghan officials despite a series of scandals that left many Western officials at odds with their Afghan counterparts.
Police officers swarmed through the neighborhood, Wazir Akbar Khan, after the blast, blocking off streets. They were soon joined by smaller groups of coalition soldiers, along with Afghan Army troops and operatives from the National Directorate of Security, the country’s main intelligence agency.
The Taliban also claimed to have killed a high-ranking German official, but the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, reached Saturday, said it was still working to confirm that.
A tight cordon kept most people from going near the restaurant. Late into the night, relatives of the Afghans who worked there waited nervously behind the police lines in near-freezing temperatures for word of those they had been unable to reach.
Senior officials at the American University in Afghanistan convened for a briefing Saturday morning to review security procedures, but decided to proceed with an upcoming student orientation and academic activities.
A tearful teenage boy, who gave his name only as Muhammad, said his older brother was a guard at the restaurant. A few police officers tried to comfort him, but he could not stop crying and repeating, “My brother, my brother.”
“That’s how our colleagues would have wanted it,” said Dr. Timothy Saffary, the school’s chief academic officer.
The Twitter account of a woman named Mona Hamade said her father owned the restaurant and was inside at the time of the attack. She could not reach him and was asking for help in finding him.
One American killed in the attack had recently joined the political science faculty at the university, while the other worked in student affairs, according to the university’s statement.
According to Afghan and Western officials, the attackers appear to have approached the restaurant on foot. The suicide bomb killed three Afghans guarding the entrance to the restaurant and blew through a thin steel door that is usually bolted from the inside and opened only after patrons are patted down.
The attack on the lightly guarded restaurant was a departure for the Taliban, which have historically targeted heavily fortified government compounds and high-profile symbols of the Western presence in Afghanistan, like the American Embassy and a building believed to house the Central Intelligence Agency station in Kabul.
The gunmen then rushed in and began shooting diners until police officers arrived a few minutes later and killed the assailants, said a Kabul police official, who asked not to be identified because the authorities were still trying to determine precisely what had happened.
Those attacks, while generating heavy news media attention, have often been far less successful in generating heavy casualties. Typically, Afghan civilians who happen to be in the vicinity are the victims. A Taliban bombing this month at the entrance to Camp Eggers, a large base for the American-led military coalition in the center of Kabul, did not inflict any casualties, for instance. The base is less than a mile from the restaurant, Taverna du Liban.
“A majority of those killed were foreigners,” the official said. “They were all shot dead after the suicide bombing.”
The restaurant, which serves Lebanese food and has a clientele made up largely of expatriates, had almost none of the security enjoyed by official installations, like concrete blast walls or checkpoints blocking off the street it is on. It is also one of the few establishments in the city on the approved list by a number of international agencies.
Though the Taliban have mounted numerous attacks in Kabul, they have rarely sought to directly target the thousands of Western civilians who live in the city unattached to any embassy.
The initial blast appeared to have been powerful. It was heard miles away and shook windows in the neighborhood, which is home to numerous embassies and shops that serve Western aid workers, journalists and other foreign civilians who live in Kabul.
In January 2011, a suicide attack on a supermarket popular with foreigners killed 14 people, including five foreigners and an Afghan family. The supermarket was only blocks from the scene of Friday’s attack.
more
In September 2012, a suicide bomber struck a minibus that was carrying flight crew members under contract with the United States government, killing 14 people, including 10 foreigners. Hezb-i-Islami, a separate insurgent group, took responsibility for the attack.
” the Taliban said in the statement.
But for the most part, the thousands of Western civilians who live in Kabul have felt very little of the threat posed by the insurgents. Outside of embassies and other official missions, few expatriates have altered what is a fairly vulnerable existence, even as security in other parts of Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.
Many expatriates still live in houses guarded only by the high walls that usually surround Afghan homes. They frequent a handful of well-established restaurants, many of which serve alcohol, and loud parties at private homes are still weekly occurrences.
