Meanwhile in Afghanistan

Witnesses to a terrorist rampage at a luxury Kabul hotel have described guests being sprayed with bullets as they ran, whole floors engulfed in flames and a security team that fled “without a fight” from gunmen in army uniforms.

Thick smoke billowed from Kabul’s Intercontinental hotel on Sunday as Afghan and western security forces regained control of the building after a 14-hour siege involving dozens of hostages including foreigners. Some guests tried to escape the carnage and a later fire by using bed sheets to climb down from balconies.

At least 18 people were confirmed to have been killed, including four Afghans and 14 foreigners.

[...]

Representatives from the airline Kam Air told Reuters that about 40 of its crew, including many foreigners, were staying in the hotel and as many as 10 had died and many were still missing.

[...]

The Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed five gunmen belonging to the group were responsible for the attack, while the Afghan interior ministry blamed the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, which killed 21 people in an attack on the same hotel in 2011.

[...]

Large sections of Kabul’s centre were already behind concrete blast walls and police checkpoints and the hotel, frequented by government officials and foreigners, was thought to be well protected.

The interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said a private company had taken over security at the hotel about three weeks ago.

  The Guardian

Maybe they should have been better vetted.