KABUL - President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani On Wednesday praised the Afghan National Security Forces for their well coordinated response in quelling Tuesday night's attack on a guest house in Wazir Akbar Khan in Kabul.
The Afghan forces reached the scene soon after the insurgents attempted to enter the guest house. Despite a heavy gun battle during a six hour siege, no deaths or injuries were reported.
Condemning the terrorist attack in the strongest terms, Ghani said: "Our security forces once again proved that they are capable of defending our country and people against any threats and disruptive efforts."
The President commended the Afghan people for supporting the National Security Forces and added that the Office of the President will continue initiatives to honor the services and sacrifices of the National Security Forces.
Ghani said that the enemy is not able to face the Afghan forces on the battlefield, so they are now resorting to killing women, children and innocent people, and attacking civilian targets.
Ghani also said that Afghanistan is "facing an enemy that spreads fear and terror among the people, but the courage of security forces has proven that the enemies of Afghanistan will fail to satisfy their ill intentions".
Sediq Sediqqi, the ministry of interior spokesman, posted a picture (as above) on his Twitter account of the special forces team that brought the Kabul attack under control. In a message below the photograph he paid tribute to the men involved and said: "These are the heroes who quelled last night attack in Kabul."
Tuesday night's attack was launched against the Heetal Guest House – home to mostly Australian expats – in an upmarket part of the city that also houses embassies.
The first sign of trouble was shortly after 23:00 (local time) when Kabul was rocked by the first explosion, followed by a volley of gunfire. Over the next six hours explosions were heard on a regular basis, as was sporadic bursts of gunfire. Hotel security, along with special forces managed to prevent the insurgents from storming the hotel – despite one attacker detonating his suicide vest in order for them to gain entry.
The Crisis Response Unit (CRU) was also brought in to help bring the situation under control. According to a senior police source the CRU was armed with heavy artillery and high-powered night vision equipment to flush out the insurgents that at one stage were believed to have been hiding among trees in a park behind the guest house.
The Kabul Police Chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi confirmed that there were no security forces casualties in the attack and no civilians were injured. He said that "in this attack we used new tactics to kill the insurgents." There had however been four attackers – all of whom died.
He said police had started investigations into the attack.
Bejhan Kohestani, the Heetal hotel manager, told TOLOnews during the siege that his security staff had successfully helped hold off the insurgents for a number of hours.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. (Tolonews)