Three Americans were among the 13 foreigners murdered in the Taliban attack on a restaurant in Kabul that killed a total of 21 people.
Afghan authorities called it the deadliest single Taliban attack against expatriate civilians in the course of the ongoing Afghanistan war, which started more than 12 years ago on October 7, 2001, the Associated Press reported.
Among the dead were 13 foreigners and eight Afghans–all civilians, according to AP.
The foreigners killed included people from Lebanon, Malaysia, Denmark, Canada, Russia, Britain, and the United States.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul said that three Americans had been killed in the attack. Those three victims include two U.S. citizens working for the American University in Afghanistan and a Somali-American working for UNICEF.
The two American university workers killed in the attack have been identified as Alexis “Lexie” Kamerman and Alexandros Petersen, according to the Los Angeles Times. Various media outlets reported that Basra Hassan was the American who was working for UNICEF.
Fox News reported that Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Zahir Zahir said the suicide bomber and two gunmen involved in the attack were killed during the Jan. 17 assault on the Lebanese restaurant, La Taverna du Liban, in Kabul.
The attack began when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the restaurant, followed by two gunmen charging in and shooting everyone in sight.
A Taliban spokesman described the assault against the restaurant, which was popular with foreigners, as a “revenge attack” for a U.S./NATO and Afghan force operation that targeted Taliban leadership.
The U.S. government and the U.S./NATO-led force in Afghanistan have condemned the attack against civilians.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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