Ukrainian Ambassador to Tajikistan and Afghanistan Viktor Nikitiuk has confirmed the death of seven Ukrainian citizens in the Kabul terror attack.
“The death of seven Ukrainian citizens has been confirmed as of today. We have information regarding all those citizens. Lots of Ukrainian aircraft technicians are working in Afghanistan; all the victims were working for the Afghan airline Kam Air and living at the Intercontinental Hotel,” Nikitiuk told the television channel 112.Ukraine on Monday.
He said the Ukrainian consul would arrive at the attack scene within hours.
The consul should specify the final casualty data and prepare documents for transporting the bodies of Ukrainian citizens to the home country.
The death of six Ukrainian citizens was reported at first.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has told the Foreign Ministry to urgently send the Ukrainian consul from Dushanbe to Kabul for conducting relevant consular procedures. Contact was established with U.S. consular workers visiting the attack scene in Afghanistan.
Poroshenko also ordered the government to give relevant assistance to the families of the Ukrainian citizens killed in Afghanistan.
One Kazakh citizen was also killed, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry spokesman Anuar Zhainakov confirmed on Facebook.
Kabul hotel attack: Indian survivor recalls night of horror
For more than 12 hours Akash Raj was holed up inside Room No 420 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.
When he felt someone was trying to break in, he “really thought the bad guys are in” but thankfully that was not the case.
Raj flew into Kabul from Dubai on Saturday afternoon to take up his assignment with the Afghan-based Kam Air.
He had no inkling about what lay in store for him over the next few hours.
He was the lone Indian in the hotel when terrorists stormed in firing indiscriminately and lobbed grenades at around 8. 30 pm (local time).
For the next 11-12 hours, he stared at inevitable death.
Raj, who hails from Kochi and is presently the chief commercial officer of Kam Airways, moved to Kabul on Saturday after the airline closed its Dubai office where he was working for the past two-and-half years.
“Reliving those moments are terrible. Death was near. I heard that 10 of my colleagues lost life in the attack. It was really traumatic,” Raj told DH over phone from Dubai, where he returned on Sunday after he was rescued by Afghan Special Forces.
US in contact with Afghans regarding the Hotel attack probe
The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the United States contacts with the Afghan authorities regarding the investigations into the attack on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul as he strongly condemned the killing of the innocent civilians in the attack.
“The United States strongly condemns yesterday’s attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. We mourn all those who lost their lives in the attack, whether Afghans or citizens of other countries. We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who were killed and wish for the speedy recovery of those wounded,” he said.
