Taliban hotel attack target: Intelligence Service HQ

Yesterday’s suicide assault on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel has been considered a signal of the Taliban’s new found boldness in the face of  President Obama’s U.S. troop withdrawal announcement last week.

But the selection of the Intercontinental was impressive in another way: the hotel is in fact the unofficial headquarters of the state’s Intelligence Service.  Our source in Kabul tells the Tatler this morning that it had been considered “the safest hotel in Kabul, until now.”