An Attack on Westerners Helps Bridge a Divide in Kabul --- KABUL, Afghanistan — His suicide vest packed with steel pellets the size of musket balls, the Taliban bomber walked down the potholed street to the entrance of the Taverna du Liban. Behind the thin steel door, in a small guardroom, three men huddled for warmth from the cold Kabul winter. -- They had no chance to respond before the explosion from the vest blew through the restaurant’s entrance. The gunmen who followed the bomber stepped over the guards’ bodies and headed for the dining room. -- At the same time, Shukraan, a dishwasher who goes by a single name, stumbled into the dining room, filled with the heavy smell of explosives. Someone shouted “Intehari, intehari.” Suicide attack. Shukraan made a beeline for the staircase to the second floor, leaving behind a room full of diners bloodied by the shattered glass. A few diners stood frozen. Others cowered beneath tables. None would make it out alive. -- By the time the police overcame the attackers, about two hours after the initial blast, a room of bodies was all that remained, revealing a massacre that struck at the heart of Western life in Kabul. All told, 21 people, 13 of them foreigners, were killed in Friday’s attack, making it one of the deadliest against Western civilians here since 2001. Among the dead were a mix of nationalities and job descriptions: an American professor, Afghan newlyweds, an aspiring British politician, a Lebanese restaurateur. -- In the days since, the attack has helped bridge an emotional divide between the few thousand Westerners here, who live an often cosseted and protected existence, and ordinary Afghans, who have borne the brunt of the war’s violence. - More, NYTimes, at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/world/asia/an-attack-on-westerners-helps-bridge-a-divide-in-kabul.html