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Agence France-Presse

At least 22 people are now known to have died when Taliban militants slaughtered guests at a luxury Kabul hotel, Afghan officials said on Monday, as fears grew that the attackers may have had inside help.
Authorities warned they were still investigating how militants breached security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago, at the landmark Intercontinental Hotel late on Saturday.
Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building. Some people climbed over balconies, using bedsheets in a desperate attempt to escape.
The attack ended after more than 12 hours on Sunday with all six militants killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.
Afghan health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had now been taken to Kabul hospitals.
“Some of the bodies [are] burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified,” he said.

Six Ukrainians were among those killed in the assault, the country’s foreign ministry has confirmed.
Earlier, Afghan officials had put the toll at 18 dead, 14 of them foreigners. Authorities are known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks.
A hotel employee told AFP that he saw two “fashionably dressed” gunmen in the hotel restaurant before the assault began.
“It was around 8.30pm … They were sitting in the corner of the hotel, and they immediately started spraying bullets,” the 20-year-old employee, who gave his name as Hasibullah, told AFP from his hospital bed.
He ran to a fifth floor room and locked himself inside, though not before seeing “many” bodies on the ground.


The gunmen went from door to door opening them “with daggers and shooting everyone”. They were searching for foreigners, Hasibullah said, though Afghans were not spared. “They were saying kill the foreigners,” he told AFP.
In terror he leapt from a window. “I fell on people lying in blood … it was horrific.”
Knocked unconscious, he awoke in hospital with a broken leg and other wounds.
“We believe they were inside from before,” he told AFP of the attackers.
On Sunday an interior ministry spokesman also suggested there was evidence some of the attackers had already been inside the building.
But it was too early to say if the militants had inside help, a second spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi told AFP, adding the investigation was ongoing.
The militants were armed with suicide vests, pistols, hand grenades and Kalashnikovs, he said.
The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.
Security has been ramped up in the city, but the resurgent Taliban and Islamic State are both scaling up their assaults.


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Afghanistan

Many foreign guests dead as Taliban siege at Kabul hotel is finally brought to a bloody end

Afghan security forces keep watch as smoke pours from the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on Sunday during a siege by Taliban militants. Photo: Reuters

Afghan policemen clash with residents near the Intercontinental Hotel after an attack in Kabul on January 21, 2018. Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul and killed at least six people including a foreigner, sparking a 12-hour battle that left terrified guests scrambling to escape and parts of the building ablaze. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the six-storey Intercontinental Hotel on a hilltop overlooking the Afghan capital. People trapped at the top of the building tied bedsheets together and climbed over balconies to escape the overnight assault. / AFP PHOTO / WAKIL KOHSAR

TOPSHOT - Afghan security from a private company assist an injured colleague near the Intercontinental Hotel following an attack by gunmen in Kabul on January 21, 2018. Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul killing at least six people, including a foreigner, sparking a twelve hour fight with security forces that left terrified guests scrambling to escape and parts of the building ablaze. Afghan security forces killed four attackers during the night-time siege, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told Tolo News, during which people trapped inside the landmark hotel were seen climbing over balconies to escape. / AFP PHOTO / WAKIL KOHSAR

Afghan security forces are seen at the roof top of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul,ÊAfghanistanÊJanuary 21, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

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Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building


Taliban

Many foreign guests dead as Taliban siege at Kabul hotel is finally brought to a bloody end

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building

Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building