Not less than 40 people have lost their lives in the attack on Kabul‘s luxury Intercontinental Hotel at the weekend. This is as official figures shows, Thursday. Almost a double of the earlier toll released by Afghan authorities.
“The final death toll (among Afghans) from Intercontinental Hotel attack stands at 25,” health ministry spokesman Wahid Majrooh told AFP.
“We don’t know about the foreign fatalities,” he said, adding 12 Afghans had been wounded.
With 15 foreigners already confirmed dead in the Taliban-claimed assault that began late Saturday, that takes the total death toll to 40.
Afghan officials had previously said 22 people were killed in the massacre, the majority of them foreigners.
Investigators are still looking into how the militants were able to get past privately-owned Kabul Balkh Safety & Security guards and launch the assault with guns and grenades.
Visitors to the upmarket hotel, which sits on a hilltop overlooking the Afghan capital, have described glaring security breaches before the assailants went on a bloody rampage targeting guests.
Bags were not checked, scanners did not work and body searches were non-existent, according to witnesses.
During the terrifying 12-hour ordeal insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests went from room to room searching for foreigners, survivors and a security source have told AFP.
Among the foreigners killed were seven Ukrainians, four Americans, two Venezuelans, one Kazakh and a German.
