29/03/2014 09:42
Deadly Kabul siege ends
Five militants set off a deadly car bomb and then stormed a guest house used by foreigners in Afghanistan's capital Friday, holding a number of people hostage during a standoff with police before one of them was shot dead and the four others blew themselves up, the country's deputy interior minister said, according to CNN.
A girl was killed and a security guard was wounded in the explosion at the beginning of the attack, said Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi. Everyone who had been held inside the building escaped unharmed, he said.
The girl's name and information on her nationality weren't immediately available. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Sediq Sediqqi, said 20 foreign nationals were moved to a safe place during the attack.
He said the target of the attack was Roots of Peace, a U.S.-based aid organization whose offices are in the building. The group works with people of war-torn communities "to provide lasting economic opportunities," according to its Facebook page.
"Our guesthouse was under attack, but all our workers are safe," the organization's country director, Mohammad Sharif Osmani, told CNN.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, with a spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, saying they attacked a location used by foreigners as a church and for converting Afghans to Christianity.
The attack began when an unoccupied car containing a bomb exploded outside the building, the deputy interior minister said. As five militants stormed the guest house, police shot and killed one, he said.
The four others held inside the five people -- three Americans, a Malaysian and a person from an unspecified African country -- as a standoff with police unfolded, he said.
The Uzbek Embassy and offices of other organizations are located nearby, police said.