Taliban Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians

Taliban Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack the day before on a popular Kabul cafe that killed 21 people, mostly Western civilians, saying it was in retaliation for a coalition airstrike on Wednesday in which a number of Afghan civilians had died in a village north of Kabul.

In their statement, the Taliban said they picked a restaurant frequented by “high-ranking foreigners” where alcohol was served. The attack, one of the most significant on Western civilians since the start of the war in 2001, struck at the heart of one of Kabul’s most secure districts, very close to many embassies and coalition military bases.

Western officials questioned the Taliban’s stated motive for the coordinated attack, which occurred just two days after the airstrike and would have required extensive planning. A suicide bomber cleared a path for two gunmen who stormed in and fired on diners, the police said.

The dead included the representative of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, the United Nations’ senior political affairs officer here and a British Labour Party candidate for the European Parliament who had been working in Afghanistan. Two Americans working at the American University in Afghanistan were also killed in the attack, the university said in a statement on Saturday. 

“The attack was in retaliation to the massacre carried out by foreign invaders two days earlier in Parwan Province’s Siyah Gerd district, where the enemy airstrikes destroyed up to 10 homes, razed several orchards as well as killing and wounding up to 30 innocent civilians, mostly defenseless women and children,” the Taliban statement said.

The international coalition, the United Nations, diplomats and Afghans quickly offered condolences and condemnations over both attacks. Later, President Hamid Karzai, whose relationship with the Americans has been strained in recent months by negotiations over a long-term security contract, expressed sympathy for the victims of the cafe attack but also seemed to use the airstrike to criticize his NATO allies over the issue of civilian casualties.

“The war on terror will bear fruit when victims and terrorists are distinguished from each other and the elements of terror are fought against,” said Mr. Karzai, who appointed a committee to investigate the civilian casualties from the airstrike. “If NATO, led by the United States, wants to be the Afghan people’s ally, they should target terrorism.”

An American military official said that the airstrike had been called in by Afghan and American forces who were under fire from Taliban fighters. “The operation was requested by the Afghans and approved by the Afghans,” the official said.

“More than 80 percent of Afghan civilian casualties are caused — in most cases intentionally — by Taliban, Haqqani and other terrorist and insurgent groups,” the official added.

The Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the Afghan police, suspended the commander and intelligence officer in charge of the district where the restaurant is and placed them under investigation.

Kabul appeared to return to normal on Saturday, with a slightly heavier police presence visible along its traffic-choked streets, especially near where the cafe attack occurred. While bombings are not uncommon in Kabul, the extent of the damage and the targeting of Western civilians raised alarms.

Some international organizations tightened security, clamping down on the modest freedom of movement enjoyed by foreigners working in Kabul. United Nations officials, meeting privately, vowed not to adopt a “bunker mentality” in response to the attacks, which claimed the lives of four of its personnel, including two from the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Apparently the only people who escaped the cafe attack were local employees of the restaurant, some of whom jumped off the roof of the building and into a neighbor’s yard.

The chief political affairs officer for the United Nations in Afghanistan, Vadim Nazarov, a longtime official with the agency, was killed in the attack, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been made public. Mr. Nazarov, a Russian, was highly regarded for his years spent here and his understanding of Afghan politics.

The International Monetary Fund said its representative in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, was also among those killed. Mr. Abdallah, 60, had served here since 2008 and had managed to forge a good working relationship with Afghan officials despite a series of scandals that left many Western officials at odds with their Afghan counterparts.

The Taliban also claimed to have killed a high-ranking German official, but the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, reached Saturday, said it could not yet confirm that report.

Senior officials at the American University in Afghanistan reviewed security procedures on Saturday, but decided to proceed with scheduled student orientation and academic activities.

“That’s how our colleagues would have wanted it,” said Timor Saffary, the school’s chief academic officer.

One American killed in the attack had recently joined the political science faculty at the university, while the other worked in student affairs, according to the university’s statement.

The attack on the lightly guarded restaurant was a departure for the Taliban, who have historically singled out heavily fortified government compounds and high-profile symbols of the Western presence in Afghanistan, like the American Embassy and a building believed to house the Central Intelligence Agency station in Kabul.

Those attacks, while generating news media attention, have often been far less successful in generating heavy casualties. Typically, Afghan civilians who happen to be in the vicinity are the victims. A Taliban bombing this month at the entrance to Camp Eggers, a large base for the American-led military coalition in the center of Kabul, did not inflict any casualties, for instance. The base is less than a mile from the restaurant that was attacked.

The restaurant, which serves Lebanese food and has a clientele made up largely of expatriates, had almost none of the security measures employed by official installations, like concrete blast walls or checkpoints. It is also one of the few establishments in the city that has been approved by a number of international agencies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/world/asia/afghanistan-restaurant-attack.html?hpw&rref=world