The Chinese government has ordered all citizens to leave Afghanistan due to a terrorist attack on a hotel frequented by Chinese citizens. On Tuesday, Chinese officials announced, “In view of the current security situation in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again advised Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan to evacuate from Afghanistan as soon as possible.”
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terror attack on the Chinese Hotel in the Shahr-e Naw commercial district in Kabul. The terrorist groups explained that two of their fighters detonated two bags hidden in the hotel that were designed to kill Chinese guests at a party and in a reception hall. The attackers used hand grenades and rifle fire to subdue the security guards.
The numbers of casualties vary based on the source. IS-K claims to have killed and wounded at least 30 people. A nearby hospital claims that they received 21 causalities and that three of them arrived deceased. The Taliban-Haqqani regime has tried to play-down the incident as they have spent the last week telling U.S. officials and other envoys that there is no terror threat in the country, as they invited more nations to reopen their embassies in Kabul. The terror regime said that all hotel guests had been rescued and that no foreign guests were killed. The two attackers were killed during the event.
The impact of the Chinese government asking its citizens to leave the country will be deep. As the world ran away from Afghanistan, China and Pakistan ran in. Pakistan was focused on guiding the creation of the new terror regime and also ramping up the shipments of goods and resources out of Afghanistan, especially construction materials and arms.
China rushed into Afghanistan to set up new lucrative business deals with the terror regime. For the Chinese, the departure of the U.S. and NATO and a more business-savvy Afghan government meant “wild west” entrepreneurship opportunities. A recent documentary details the scale and speed in which Chinese business leaders, with full Chinese government backing, have launched into Afghanistan seeking a part of the estimated one trillion U.S. Dollars in mineral wealth. Geologists have noted that Afghanistan may have the largest copper deposits in the world, and also significant deposits of lithium, iron-ore, and rare earth elements.
This evacuation of Chinese business leaders is a huge blow to the Taliban-Haqqani regime. In October, the terror regime announced that China was a key player in the development of Afghanistan. In exchange for Taliban promises to shut down any Uyghur terror groups in Afghanistan, China has repeatedly called upon the U.S. to release the billions of dollars they have frozen and hand it to the Taliban-Haqqani regime. China has also been calling for removal of terrorism sanctions on regime members, and for nations to begin to recognize the terror regime as a government.
China is not the only nation who has come under attack by either the Taliban-Haqqani regime or other terrorist groups. Russia, Pakistan, and Iran have also been targeted in the Capital and along the borders.
The United States, China, and the United Nations all condemned this latest terror event in Afghanistan and called for investigations. At a time when the Taliban-Haqqani regime is trying to convince the world that they have secured the country, these attacks are a reminder that Afghanistan is a terrorist safe haven.
