Elite Afghan police backed by NATO forces ended a 12-hour siege on Friday at a popular lakeside hotel outside Kabul, leaving at least 20 dead after Taliban gunmen stormed the lakeside building, bursting into a party and seizing dozens of hostages.
The night-time assault on the hotel with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and machine guns again proved how potent the Islamist insurgency remains after a decade of war. ...
Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said 12 to 15 civilians, two hotel guards and a policeman were killed in the gunbattle at the Spozhmai hotel, overlooking Qargha Lake. Five attackers were also killed.
Or if they can afford more, getting volunteers will get more difficult.
Operations like this are media operations. Yes, it would be nice to be able to stop a force of this size from hitting friendly targets. But with a sanctuary across the border in Pakistan, that is tough to do.
But in the end, Taliban gunmen attacked a civilian target guaranteed to get media attention and dug in waiting to die. Pity more didn't die. But in the end, they retreated.
The failure to seal off the hotel and kill all of the attackers if this really was a large attack is the main failure, as far as I can see.
If we sent our troops into situations where our troops could only look forward to dying at the hands of the enemy after holding out for a while and retreating, would our press describe our military effort as "resurgent" or "resilient"?
