Hundreds held after presidential assassination attempt in Afghanistan

According to senior security sources in Kabul, the Afghan police and intelligence service detained some 200 guests at a cheap hotel in Kabul popular among travelling salesman. Among them were the six assailants, who launched their machine gun and grenade attack on Sunday morning, killing an MP, a Shia Muslim religious leader and an 11-year-old boy.

"There is no security force in Afghanistan that people trust," said Ramazan Bashardost, an Afghan MP. "If you pay attention to yesterday's incident, the security forces fled the area before the ordinary people did."