John Turner, a trucking contractor from Kansas City, said the attackers appeared well organized and were able to penetrate the building, located on a residential street.
Flushed and with black stains on his hands and face, Turner said 40 people were staying at the guest house, of whom about 25 took refuge in the laundry room at the back of the building under his protection.
“I am armed. I carry an AK-47 and I kept firing it to keep the attackers away from the group I was guarding,” he said. The group later jumped over a back wall to take refuge in a house behind the guest house, he said.
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Good on John Turner, and way to step up and deal with these bastards. Rest in peace to the fallen, and my heart goes out to the friends and family.
My one commentary on this is that soft targets are now the flavor of the month. The goal is to disrupt the runoff election, by attacking the UN and it’s workers. The other goal is to make unsafe, any and all areas in which NGO’s and others wish to operate out of. The security for these so-called soft targets needs to be re-evaluated and adjusted in order to defeat similar Taliban attacks in the future.
And going back to the super empowered individual as a counter to the super empowered individual or cell. As you can see, John the trucker was definitely able to make an impact on this attack. To completely rely on police to come in and save the day, is not realistic, and these attacks happen way too fast in order for that to happen. It takes a ‘John the trucker’ armed with a AK, or ‘Mary the accountant’ armed with a Blackberry, to act in the face of chaos, and do the things necessary to defeat the attacker. Just having a plan for a facility, and ensuring everyone knows the plan, will help to save lives, as well as empowering those on the facility with the mental tools necessary to survive these incidents. And like Dr. Phil Zimbardo says, teach people to be ‘a hero in waiting’. –Matt
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Gunmen storm UN guest house in Kabul, 11 dead
By RAHIM FAIEZ and AMIR SHAH
October 28, 2009
KABUL – Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital Wednesday, killing 11 people including five U.N. workers.
The two-hour attack, which began shortly before 6 a.m., sent people jumping out of windows or hopping from roof to roof to escape a fire that engulfed part of the three-story building. A man from Kansas City, Mo., said he held off gunmen with a Kalashnikov until a group of guests escaped through the laundry room.
It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month’s presidential runoff election. At least 25 U.N. staff were staying at the guest house, most of them advisers for the Nov. 7 balloting.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assaults, which included rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city’s main luxury hotel. The Taliban has warned Afghans to stay away from the polls or risk attacks.
The chief of the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack “will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work” in the country.