SURVIVORS RECOUNT ORDEAL WITH TALIBAN
Survivors of the Taliban attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel are recounting the ordeal of the deadly, 13-hours-long standoff that claimed 18 lives, including 14 foreigners.
Mohammad Humayun Shams, telecommunications director of eastern Laghman province who was visiting Kabul and staying at the hotel, says he was able to escape by jumping into a tree form a hotel window as the attackers roamed the hallways, killing people.
Shams says that “it was the worst night of my life.” He says that as he ran he didn’t know who were the police and who were the Taliban — they all had same uniforms.
More than 150 people were rescued or managed to escape, including 41 foreigners. Eleven of the 14 foreigners killed were pilots and employees of Kam-Air, a private Afghan airline.
Security forces said Sunday they had killed the last of six Taliban militants to end the siege.
Some of the guests escaped by shimmying down bedsheets from the upper floors.
The militants, who wore suicide vests, pinned down security forces for more than 13 hours after the attack began about 9 p.m. Saturday. The gunmen roamed the hallways and targeted foreigners and Afghan officials inside the luxury, hilltop hotel.
Of those rescued, 10 people were injured, including six security forces, said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish.
Eleven of the 14 foreigners killed were employees of KamAir, a private Afghan airline, Danish said. KamAir put out a statement saying some of its flights were disrupted because of the attack.
Six of those killed were Ukrainians, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Two Venezuelan pilots for KamAir were among the dead, according to Luis Figuera. He told The Associated Press that his brother-in-law, Adelsis Ramos, was killed along with Pablo Chiossone, and that their bodies were identified by another Venezuelan pilot at a Kabul hospital.
A citizen from Kazakhstan also was among the dead.