Reporter Killed With Family as Taliban Attack Afghan Hotel

Taliban militants killed nine people, including an Afghan reporter and his family, in an attack on a Kabul hotel as the group stepped up its campaign to disrupt the nation’s presidential election next month.

“It’s with sadness that I learned of the loss of a talented Afghan journalist Sardar Ahmad who was killed along with his wife and his two lovely children in yesterday’s terrorist attack carried out by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan on the Serena Hotel,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an e-mailed statement today.