A Twitter Timeline of Wednesday's Attacks in Kabul

Published October 29, 2009 @ 05:50AM PT

Just before 6 a.m. Afghanistan time on Wednesday, gunmen stormed a United Nations-approved guesthouse in a Kabul neighborhood filled with foreign aidworkers. Terrified guests, many of them in Afghanistan to monitor the upcoming presidential runoff election, jumped out windows and off the roof, fleeing in pajamas and bare feet as the gunmen began shooting and guards returned fire. The Afghan National Army (ANA) quickly arrived on the scene and began fighting the gunmen.

The siege lasted two horrifying hours. (My field colleagues spent the duration of the attack in a safe room just down the street.) At some point during the standoff, one of the gunmen detonated his explosive-rigged vest, killing himself and at least one UN employee. According to the most recent news reports, five UN employees, one guard, and three attackers were killed. In a separate attack, rockets were fired at the Serena Hotel, but did only structural damage.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the carnage.

I was cracking jokes on Twitter two nights ago when the attacks began and I suddenly noticed alarming tweets about gunfire from Kabul-based aidworkers I follow.

The wires had nothing on what was happening in Kabul, so I stayed glued to Twitter for the next several hours, reading one of the deadliest attacks on UN employees since the 2003 Baghdad Canal Hotel bombing unfold on my computer screen 140 characters at a time.

Below is a condensed timeline of tweets.

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Comments (1)

Awesome witness composite. Feels like you're with friends in a nearby shelter, not sure what's next.

Posted by Daniel J Gerstle on 10/29/2009 @ 10:28AM PT
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Una Vera is an international development professional living in the northeast United States. Her blogging at Change.org focuses on the intersection of human security, governance, and armed conflict --primarily in Europe and Central Asia. You can follow Una on Twitter @Transitionland.