Afghan Officials Arrest 4 in Hotel Bombing

Afghan officials have arrested participants in the hotel bombing in Kabul and also determined that the masterminding of it goes back to the Pakistan area, but I want to point out something on this article from the AP. I have the whole AP article here. What I'd like you to notice when you read this article, is see HOW FAR you have to get into the article for the AP writer to actually tell you that it was the Taliban behind this civilian attack. This is incredible. You may want to notice that this is one of the few articles written by an AP writer in Afghanistan without a very "Afghani" last name....
The significance of this attack is not that it hit at the center of Kabul but for the fact that this is one of the first times that the Taliban has focused entirely on Western civilians. The Taliban has certainly taken civilians out before but usually as secondary casualties to a military target. Also, the Taliban has deliberately sought to kidnap Westerners before as well. But it appears that the Taliban has bought into al Qaeda's suicide bombing tactics to the fullest extent at this point.

Here's some excerpts.

Afghan Hotel Attacker Wore Cop Uniform
Jan 15 06:54 AM US/Eastern
By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan officials have arrested four men following an attack on Kabul's main luxury hotel, including one suspected of wearing a police uniform during the multi-pronged assault that killed eight, officials said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a militant connected to an insurgent leader in Pakistan was accused of masterminding the attack, which left at least one American among the dead and could signal a new era of brazen extremist assaults in Afghanistan.
Police said they also found a video made by two of the attackers in a home in Kabul, where they arrested two men. A fourth man—believed to have driven the attackers to the Serena Hotel—was arrested in eastern Afghanistan while trying to flee to Pakistan.
Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, said three militants stormed the Serena Hotel on Monday evening. A guard shot and killed one attacker at the gate to the hotel's parking lot, which triggered his suicide vest.
A second attacker blew himself up near the entrance to the hotel's lobby, and the third attacker made it inside the hotel and shot his way through the lobby and toward the gym, Saleh said. A man alleged suspected of being the third attacker was arrested Monday.
The three militants stormed the popular luxury hotel just after 6 p.m., hunting down Westerners who had cowered in a gym. More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran to the scene.