China urges citizens to leave Afghanistan after Kabul attack



AfghanistanTaliban fighters are seen in the rooftop of a hotel building during a gunfire in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. A Taliban official says that a hotel building has come under a complex attack in the Afghan capital Kabul. (AP Photo)More


RAHIM FAIEZ
Tue, December 13, 2022 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China on Tuesday advised its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country “as soon as possible," following a coordinated attack by Islamic State militants the previous day on a Chinese-owned hotel in the heart of Kabul.

The Chinese advisory appeared to be a setback for Afghanistan's Taliban rulers who seek foreign investments in hopes of halting the downward spiral of the Afghan economy since their takeover of the country more than a year ago.

The militant Islamic State group — a key rival of the Taliban — claimed responsibility for the attack Monday afternoon on Kabul Longan Hotel, which left three assailants dead and at least two hotel guests injured as they tried to escape by jumping out of a window.

Plumes of smoke rose from the 10-story building in the central Shar-e Naw neighborhood, according to images posted on social media as the attack unfolded. Residents reported explosions and gunfire.


Taliban forces rushed to the area and blocked all roads leading to the site. Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said the attack lasted several hours, followed by a clean-up operation.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the attack “egregious in nature” and said China was “deeply shocked.”

Beijing demanded a “thorough investigation” and urged the Taliban government “to take resolute and strong measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Afghanistan,” Wang said.

The Chinese Embassy in Kabul sent its team to the site to help with the rescue, treatment and accommodations for the victims of the attack, Wang added.

“In view of the current security situation in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again advised Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan to evacuate from Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Wang said.

The Taliban swept across the country in August 2021, seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their final withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

Since their takeover, the international community has balked at extending official recognition to the former insurgents who have broken promises of pursuing a more moderate path forward, including reopening schools to girls beyond the sixth grade and safeguarding minority rights.

The Taliban government has recently also made statements saying it intends to implement Islamic law, or Sharia, as it did when the Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. In the past weeks, the Taliban have carried out executions and public floggings on several occasions of those convicted in Taliban courts of crimes such as murder and adultery.

China has economic and mining interests in the country though those familiar with past talks between the Taliban and Chinese officials say Beijing wants Taliban commitments to prevent China’s Uyghur opponents from setting up operations in Afghanistan.

Chinese firms, with strong government backing, have tentatively sought to pursue opportunities in exploiting Afghanistan’s vast, undeveloped resource deposits, especially the Mes Aynak mine that is believed to hold the world’s largest copper deposit.

In October, Taliban-appointed government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid highlighted China as a key part of Afghanistan’s economic development. China has also revealed its aspirations to play a leading role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a regional conference recently led calls for the United States to unfreeze Afghan assets held abroad and end sanctions on the Taliban government.

There was no information on the identities of the injured Chinese guests at the Kabul hotel or what they were doing in Afghanistan.

The IS statement, carried by one of the militant Telegram channels used by the group, said two of its members targeted the hotel because it is frequented by diplomats and owned by “communist China."

It further claimed IS attackers detonated two bags with explosives that were left in the hotel earlier, including one in the main hall, and set fire to a part of the hotel. The militant group offered no proof for its claims.

There were conflicting reports as to the casualty numbers. Taliban officials said three assailants were killed; the IS claim said only two of its members took part in the attack, identifying them by name and posting their photographs. According to Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, two foreign residents were injured when they jumped out of hotel windows.

However, the Emergency Hospital in Kabul said in a tweet Monday that it received 21 casualties, including the bodies of three people.

The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Riazat Butt in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

ISIS Bomb Targets Chinese Diplomats, Executives in Afghanistan



Eltaf Najafizada
Tue, December 13, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- An Islamic State offshoot took credit for an attack at a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese diplomats and businessmen, the first attack targeting citizens from one of the few countries with good ties with the Taliban since the militant group seized power last year.

Two armed members of the Islamic State-Khorasan, a local affiliate of the militant group operating in the Middle East, detonated explosive devices inside the Kabul Longan Hotel in a posh district of the Afghan capital Monday. The group claimed the suicide attack killed or wounded at least 30 people, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

A spokesman of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, Zabihullah Mujahed, said two foreign nationals were injured while jumping from the hotel balcony and three assailants were killed after a gun battle with government forces.

China was “deeply shocked” by the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. Chinese diplomats in the South Asian nation made serious representations with Afghanistan about the incident, he said, adding that Beijing supported the nation in countering terrorism.

This is the group’s third attack in the last few months hitting targets associated with nations that have friendly ties with the Taliban. Earlier this month there was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in the country. In September, the group claimed an attack just outside the Russian embassy, which killed several people including a senior diplomat and a security guard.

The IS-K group is one of the Taliban’s most serious security threats, carrying out large-scale attacks in densely populated areas. Even before the Taliban took over the militant group was fighting it in an attempt to impose their even-harsher Islamic ideology and expand their influence in the region.

The attacks highlight the difficulties the Taliban faces to break its international isolation and draw in foreign investments to the country’s largely untapped mineral resources.

The militant group has limited diplomatic links with only seven countries, including Russia and China, but even those countries have not formally recognized its government.

--With assistance from Philip Glamann.