Taliban stage explosive PR event in Kabul hotel

NY Times:

Several heavily armed attackers stormed one of the capital’s fortified premier hotels Tuesday night, with sporadic shooting and at least two loud explosions booming as Afghan security forces battled to hunt down and fend off the insurgents for hours afterward.

Coming within a week of President Obama’s announcement of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, the attack underscored the still precarious nature of security, even in the capital, as the handover to Afghan security forces begins in some areas of the country. The heavily guarded Intercontinental Hotel, which sits on a hilltop on the west side of Kabul, has a police guard at its base and intelligence officers stationed at the top of the hill and near the entrance, and it was not clear how so many attackers could have breached its defenses.

The exact circumstances surrounding the attack and the number of casualties were not clear even in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as Afghan security forces cordoned off the area. A Western security official said that early reports indicated that the hotel was entered by as many as six attackers — heavily armed and believed to be wearing suicide vests — and that as many as 10 people had been killed or injured in the attack.

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I think the hotel is supposed to be hosting some officials meeting with the government on Wednesday. It is not a take and hold operation. Instead it is a mayhem operation that is to last until the religious bigots with bombs strapped to themselves are dead.

I suspect that half of the six are already dead based on the blasts of explosives and the fire from a US chopper that killed one. Clearing the rooms and finding the religious bigots may take awhile, but all the Taliban has achieved is a PR event that should have little lasting effect.

Update:  A NATO raid took out the terrorist.