Polish Doctor Living in the US for 40 Years Detained by ICE

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Private Investigators Say Several People Murdered Canadian Billionaire Couple Barry and Honey Sherman

Private investigators in Canada believe that a prominent billionaire couple found dead in their Toronto mansion last month were murdered by multiple assailants, pouring cold water on the theory that their deaths were a result of a murder-suicide.

Canada’s CBC News reported the private investigators’ findings on the couple’s mysterious killing Saturday, citing an unnamed source familiar with a parallel investigation into their deaths.

Police had earlier deemed the deaths of Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife Honey, 70, “suspicious” after a realtor discovered the bodies dangling from a railing near their basement swimming pool on December 15. A coroner’s report determined the couple had died from a form a strangulation called “ligature neck compression.”

Read more: A Billionaire Couple Was Found Dead Over the Weekend. Here’s What We Know About Their Wealth

At the time, police said that there were no signs of forced entry and that they were not looking for suspects; scant details of their murder investigation have been revealed since.

Members of the Sherman family hired a team of private detectives amid reports that police were probing their relatives’ deaths as a possible murder-suicide—a theory shunned by the couple’s family and friends, CBC says.

Besides finding evidence to suggest multiple murderers killed the couple, the investigators reportedly believe that Honey was engaged in a violent struggle before her death, reports CBC. Investigators also claim the couple had been bound together for a time, and that they were killed on Dec. 13, two days before their bodies were first discovered.

Read more: The Probe Into the Deaths of a Canadian Billionaire and His Wife Has Just Become a Murder Investigation

Barry Sherman, one of Canada’s richest individuals, is credited with transforming a small generic drug supplier called Apotex into a multinational with over 11,000 employees. Apotex “revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry in Canada” according to Sherman’s biographer, but its rise enmeshed Sherman in hundreds of legal disputes, the Washington Post reports.

The death of the couple, who were prominent philanthropists, prompted condolences from an array of high profile Canadians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Mall evacuated after two explosive devices go off

LAKE WALES, Fla. — Police say two improvised explosive devices ignited inside a mall in central Florida.

Lake Wales police Deputy Chief Troy Schulze tells news outlets that at 5:22 p.m., the Lake Wales Fire Department received an alarm call at the Eagle Ridge Mall. While en route to that call, their alarm for smoke was turned into a structure fire call.

As they arrived, they found smoke in the service corridor just outside J.C. Penney. They discovered an IED that ignited or detonated inside that service corridor as they went inside.

Schulze said they also found a book bag containing what they believed to be other devices inside.

Officials say no one was injured, but the mall was evacuated.

Authorities say witnesses described a person-of-interest. An investigation is ongoing.

Patriots headed to SB LII after victory over Jaguars


Tom Brady connected with Danny Amendola on a toe-tapping touchdown late in the fourth quarter, leading New England to yet another electrifying comeback in the postseason to set up a Super Bowl meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles. Here’s what we learned as Brady embarks on his eighth Super Bowl appearance courtesy of Sunday’s 24-20 AFC Championship Game victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars:

1. One by one, the odds kept stacking against Brady in a performance reminiscent of his last two thrilling Super Bowl triumphs. Down 10 points, nursing stitches in his throwing hand, directing a one-dimensional attack minus the greatest tight end in history as well as trusty chain-mover Julian Edelman, Brady shredded the league’s dominant pass defense for 138 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a sensational fourth quarter. Overflowing the NFL Films vault with the latest in a seemingly unending string of instant classics, Brady stands alone atop quarterback mountain, increasing his unsurmountable lead over the pantheon of gridiron legends. Brady’s NFL-record eighth fourth-quarterback comeback in the postseason leaves him with 23 more touchdowns, 2,382 more yards, 11 more victories and three more Super Bowl appearances than any quarterback in playoff history.


2. Much like Super Bowl LI, the Patriots were clearly outclassed by a younger, physical, more athletic squad through three quarters. Following a familiar pattern, however, they were forced to compensate with Brady’s brilliance, a stifling fourth-quarter defense, questionable coaching decisions on the opposing sideline and a series of clutch plays mixed with favorable calls. The Jaguars paid dearly for a delay-of-game penalty late in the second quarter, accrued 68 yards in pass interference penalties attempting to cover Brandin Cooks and got caught playing with Brady’s fourth-quarter fire when their own play-calling regressed to an overly conservative approach. After orchestrating a practically perfect game plan through three quarters, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and quarterback Blake Bortles managed just three fourth-quarter punts and a turnover on downs with the Super Bowl on the horizon.

3. The final outcome will end up overshadowing Hackett’s brilliant management of Bortles over the previous seven quarters versus the AFC’s super powers in Pittsburgh and New England. For the second straight week, Hackett eliminated the opposing pass rush, provided Bortles with easy, low-risk throws and allowed his embattled passer to find a comfortable rhythm. Making sound decisions and converting an impressive array of third downs in a ball-control attack, Bortles tied a career-high with 12 consecutive completions in the heart of the afternoon. By halftime, he had completed 13 of 15 throws for 155 yards, one score and a gaudy 131.9 passer rating. Until that fateful final frame, it was fair to make the claim that Bortles had finally lived up to his No. 3 overall draft-pick pedigree, producing the best game of his career on the biggest stage the franchise has seen to date.

4. For all of the pre-game scrutiny over the daunting prospect of containing the unguardable Rob Gronkowski, the All-Pro tight end hauled in just one pass for 21 yards before safety Barry Church’s helmet-to-helmet blow sent him to the locker room late in the second quarter. Although Church’s penalty helped the Patriots find the end zone in the halftime two-minute drill, Gronkowski was lost for the remainder of the game with a head injury. As valuable as any non-quarterback in football, his status will be one to monitor leading up to Super Bowl LII.


5. With Gronkowski nursing a head injury, New England desperately needed Dion Lewis to maintain the white-hot hand he had been boasting for the past month. Instead, Jacksonville’s speedy defense bottled up the ultra-elusive tailback at the line of scrimmage and after the catch, showing superlative tackle form on first contact. Lewis’ lack of playmaking ability left Brady leading a one-dimensional offense for the game’s entirety. Worse, a blindspot in Lewis’ peripheral vision allowed Myles Jack to strip the ball on a trick play that would put the Patriots in field-goal territory late in the third quarter. The Pats will need more production out of the Lewis-James White-Rex Burkhead backfield trio against the stifling defense of the NFC champions.

6. With the exception of a bad drop by Cooks in the third quarter, New England’s underappreciated wideouts surprisingly came out on top in their battle versus Jacksonville’s daunting pass defense. Stretching the field versus A.J. Bouye, Jalen Ramsey and even overmatched linebacker Telvin Smith, Cooks drew 68 yards in pass-interference penalties to go with 100 receiving yards on six receptions. Colts castoff Phillip Dorsett came through with a highlight of his own, pulling down a 31-yard flea flicker over Myles Jack. After converting six first downs in a season-best performance versus the Titans last week, Amendola took his game to an even higher level in Sunday’s fourth quarter. Following a 9-yard touchdown, Amendola broke free for a 20-yard punt return, hauled in a diving red-zone catch and capped off the comeback with a toe-tapping score in the back of the end zone. All Amendola does is take pay cuts and make big plays in the postseason.

7. While Bill Belichick bathes in the deserving glory of his 11th Super Bowl appearance, the Jaguars’ triad of coach Doug Marrone, general manager Dave Caldwell and executive vice president Tom Coughlin merit a tip of the cap for building a bully that bulldozed its way out of the AFC’s basement and onto the doorstep of the Super Bowl. After drafting difference-making All-Pro Jalen Ramsey in 2016, the organization’s braintrust imported a coterie of tone-setters in Calais Campbell, Leonard Fournette, Cam Robinson, A.J. Bouye and Barry Church to instigate this year’s dramatic transformation. Provided Bortles continues to show improvement under Hackett’s guiding hand, Jacksonville is here to stay as an AFC contender.

Women of all ages are honored as SAG Awards switch it up with female host and presenters

For an awards ceremony that isn’t the Oscars or the Golden Globes, there was plenty of attention heading into the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.

Call it a stunt or a bold statement, but for the first time ever, the SAGs featured a female-only lineup of award presenters, and its first host, Kristen Bell. And it arrived less than 24 hours after the Women’s March that President Trump tried his best to say was in his honor. (It wasn’t.)

The unprecedented move was meant to further the conversation about sexual harassment in Hollywood following the #MeToo movement, the fall of accused predators like Harvey Weinstein and the Time’s Up campaign, which was launched this month by many of the same women at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday.

The surprise, however, was not Bell’s competent performance, or that women carried an entire show or that James Franco attended after misconduct allegations were recently launched against him.

FBI did not keep texts between agents involved in Clinton, Trump probes

Jan. 21 (UPI) — The FBI did not retain text messages between two agency officials involved in the investigations of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for a five-month period, according to a Senate committee letter.

The missing texts were revealed after the FBI delivered more than 400 pages of texts between agent Peter Strzok, who led the investigation of the Clinton email server, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. The committee requested the bulk of texts after reports in December that the two made disparaging comments about Trump throughout the 2016 presidential election season.

The Department of Justice was able to collect 384 pages worth of texts between Strzok and Page, but said the FBI was not able to collect texts Strzok and Page sent to each other between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.

“The FBI has informed [the Department of Justice] that many FBI-provided Samsung 5 mobile devices did not capture or store text messages due to reconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBI’s collection capabilities,” the Department of Justice statement said, according to Johnson’s letter. “The Result was that data that should have been automatically collected and retained for long-term storage and retrieval was not collected.”

Johnson said the FBI’s inability to collect the texts was “concerning.”

Johnson published several text conversations between Strzok and Page, including one that indicates Clinton, while serving as Secretary of State, emailed President Barack Obama through her private email server while traveling overseas. That information was originally included in former FBI Director James Comey‘s statement in July, 2016, announcing that no criminal charges would be recommended.

But a text from Strzok to Page said that “President” was change to “another senior government official.”

In his letter, Johnson said other conversations between Strzok and Page indicate that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was aware that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges before she announced in July that she would accept the agency’s recommendation.

Lynch made that announcement after TV news cameras filmed her having a private conversation with former President Bill Clinton at a Phoenix airport.

“Yeah, it’s a real profile in courag(e), since she knows no charges will be brought,” Page texted to Strzok.

In the letter, Johnson asked the FBI to further explain why the text messages are missing and produce other relevant records pertaining to the Clinton investigation.

“Under federal law, the head of each federal agency is required to preserve all records documenting the decision-making process and essential transactions of the agency,” Johnson wrote.

Senate adjourns without deal to end government shutdown; vote postponed until noon Monday

The government shutdown headed into its third day after frantic efforts Sunday by a bipartisan group of moderate senators failed to produce a compromise on immigration and spending.

“We have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward that would be acceptable for both sides,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, adding that talks would continue ahead of a procedural vote scheduled for noon Monday.

The effects of the shutdown over the weekend were relatively limited — halting trash pickup on National Park Service property, canceling military reservists’ drill plans, and switching off some government employees’ cellphones.

But the shutdown continuing into Monday, the start of the workweek, means that hundreds of thousands of workers will stay home and key federal agencies will be affected. Passport and visa applications will go unprocessed, federal contractors will see payments delayed, and the Internal Revenue Service will slow its preparations for the coming tax season.

The impasse continues as it was unclear whether the public would blame the Republicans, who control the White House and Congress, or Democrats taking a stand on immigration while shuttering government agencies.

The moderates’ proposal — to link a three-week extension of government funding to the consideration of an immigration bill in the Senate — prompted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to announce that he would be willing to start debating immigration legislation if an agreement was not otherwise reached by early February.

“Let’s step back from the brink,” he said. “Let’s stop victimizing the American people and get back to work on their behalf.”

But the pledge came with caveats that led senior Democratic aides to question whether it would ultimately be workable. Mindful of the failure of a sweeping immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but languished in the House, Democrats want stronger assurances that the legislation they are demanding to protect young undocumented immigrants will ultimately become law.

Whether Republicans can find compromise on immigration remained as uncertain as ever Sunday, with no clear backing from House Republican leaders or President Trump, who showed no sign of retreating from his hard line on immigration.

Still, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said he was “optimistic” the Senate would vote tomorrow to break the impasse. Schumer, he said, “wants to just give everybody a chance to chew on it and sort of understand it, and so that’s why he didn’t want to have the vote tonight.”

Matt House, a spokesman for Schumer, said the Democrats “made some reasonable offers to Senator McConnell and he hasn’t accepted them yet. The caucus is waiting for him to move some in our direction.”

The bipartisan group scrambled for a compromise, but the decision ultimately belonged to McConnell and Schumer.

What closes when the government shuts down? View Graphic What closes when the government shuts down?

“We’re trying to be helpful in showing them that there is a path forward,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who hosted more than a dozen fellow moderates in her office for an early afternoon meeting.

Sunday began with more of the partisan posturing that marked much of the previous week, delivered on the morning news programs, on the House and Senate floors, and in a presidential tweet.

Trump wrote that if the “stalemate continues,” then Republicans should use the “Nuclear Option” to rewrite Senate rules and try to pass a long-term spending bill with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed to pass most legislation — a notion Trump has previously floated to McConnell’s repeated dismissal.

The president otherwise remained uncharacteristically quiet, heeding the advice of senior advisers who argued that he has the upper hand over Schumer and the Democrats and that they would soon be forced to capitulate.

On the Senate floor, Schumer showed no signs of caving and kept pressure on Republicans.

“Not only do they not consult us, but they can’t even get on the same page with their own president,” he said. “The congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with President Trump; President Trump tells me to figure it out with the congressional leaders. This political Catch-22, never seen before, has driven our government to dysfunction.”

As the clock ticked toward a scheduled 1 a.m. Monday vote — set by McConnell in part because of arcane Senate rules but later postponed — the moderates made the most visible progress toward a deal. Among the participants in the Collins meeting were a number of Democrats who are seeking reelection in states Trump won in 2016 — five of whom voted Friday against sparking the shutdown in the first place.

“There are more than just moderate Democrats or conservative Democrats — a majority of Democrats want it to end,” said Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

All of that weighed on lawmakers who milled around the Capitol, many in flannel shirts, sweater vests and other casual garb.

“If it doesn’t happen tonight, it’s going to get a lot harder tomorrow,” said a windbreaker-and-baseball-cap clad Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has pressed for action on immigration legislation and met with the moderates’ group Sunday.

No firm proposal emerged from the meeting, but senators discussed a broad outline that could unlock a deal: modify the temporary spending bill now under consideration in the Senate to expire on Feb. 8, and then find some way to guarantee that immigration legislation moves forward in the interim.

The White House has said it supports the plan for funding through Feb. 8 but has been wary of making concessions on immigration. While legislation protecting DACA recipients could probably move through the Senate with Democrats and a handful of Republicans supporting it, Trump has rejected proposals along those lines and House GOP leaders are under fierce pressure not to bring up any bill that a majority of Republicans would reject.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” White House legislative affairs director Marc Short declined to provide assurances that the president would guarantee a vote on an immigration bill in exchange for a short-term spending deal. “We want to have the right resolution,” he said.

Other Republicans also saw little advantage in making any concessions to advance legislation that would provide protections for “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children, 690,000 of whom face potential deportation after Trump canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

In a brief closed-door meeting of House Republicans, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reassured lawmakers that there would be no negotiations on the issue as long as the government remained shuttered, affirming the White House position.

Cornyn told reporters that the deadline for action to address DACA remained March 5, when the last of the program’s participants will see their protected status expire.

“We’re more than happy to have a vote on it well before the deadline. We’ve committed to that,” Cornyn said. “But turning the agenda over to Democrats who just shut down the government makes no sense to me. It just seems like it encourages bad behavior.”

While there have been talks since early last year about trading DACA protections for more border security funding, as many Republicans want, negotiations have failed to produce a deal.

Democrats said they made a significant concession over the weekend, agreeing to put major funding behind Trump’s promised border wall, something that has been anathema to liberals since the 2016 presidential election.

Schumer on Sunday said that in a Friday meeting, Trump “picked a number for the wall, and I accepted it.”

“It would be hard to imagine a much more reasonable compromise,” he added. “All along, the president saying, ‘Well, I’ll do DACA, dreamers, in return for the wall.’ He’s got it. He can’t take yes for an answer. That’s why we’re here.”

Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), one of the most outspoken Democratic advocates for immigrant rights, also said in a Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that he would agree to the funding.

“I think the wall is a monumental waste of taxpayer money,” he said. “Having said that . . . if that’s what the hostage takers [demand for] the dreamers, if that’s their ransom call, I say pay it.”

But the concession was rejected on two fronts. Doubts remained that the Democratic rank and file would agree to wall funding — even with the blessing of Schumer and Gutiérrez. Asked about a deal that could deliver Trump as much as $20 billion for the border wall, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scoffed, “Oh, come on.”

“None of us is at a table where they’re talking about $20 billion,” she said. “Should there be fencing? Should there be technology? Should they mow the grass so that people can’t hide in it? Should there be some bricks and mortar someplace? Let’s see what works.”

And Republicans themselves scoffed at Schumer’s claim that he offered Trump precisely what was demanded. The Democratic offer, they said, fell short of the full, immediate funding the president sought and instead involved yearly installments of funding that could be subject to future shutdown threats.

Moreover, Republicans have demanded concessions on other aspects of the immigration system, including an end to rules authorizing permanent legal immigrants to sponsor family members for legal status and an end to a “diversity visa” program that distributes visas based on a lottery system.

The wall is “one of the three legs of this three-legged stool,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a key House conservative. “I’m glad to hear that there is some movement there, but there’s a couple of other legs of that stool that have to be put forth.”

The battle lines over immigration have become especially firm as spending talks falter. Republican leaders have cast the shutdown as the product of Democrats’ prioritization of undocumented immigrants over American citizens.

But a debate has opened up in the party about how far to push that argument. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) questioned an online ad from Trump’s campaign that said the president’s immigration proposals are “right” and “Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”

“I don’t know if that’s necessarily productive,” Ryan said on CBS.

Most senators remained cautious about the developments, adding quickly after each burst of optimism that any vote late Sunday or early Monday could easily fall apart and that the moderate group was sparking discussion but was hardly in control.

Sen. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), one of the five Democrats who crossed over on Friday, said he and other Democrats met with Schumer on Sunday morning.

“The pitch is we need to do what’s right for the country and he does, too. He feels the same way, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Donnelly, who faces a tough reelection fight in a state Trump won.

Paul Kane, Ed O’Keefe, Jacob Bogage, Cindy Boren, Jenna Johnson, Karoun Demirjian, Elise Viebeck and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

Sheriff’s deputy’s teacher wife, 29, is accused of performing oral sex on her 14-year-old student

  • Dori Myers, 29, is accused of performing oral sex on a 14-year-old boy
  • Myers is a teacher at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge
  • She is charged with criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child

Abigail Miller For Dailymail.com

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A high school teacher in the Bronx was stony-faced Saturday as she denied allegations of sexual assault on her teenage student. 

Dori Myers scowled as prosecutors accused her of performing oral sex on a 14-year-old boy, according to the New York Post. 

The 29-year-old, who teaches social studies at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge, was also seen massaging the victim, according to a witness statement. 

Myers was arrested Friday night and charged with criminal sexual act in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

Dori Myers scowled as prosecutors accused her of performing oral sex on a 14-year-old boy, according to the New York Post

Dori Myers scowled as prosecutors accused her of performing oral sex on a 14-year-old boy, according to the New York Post

The 29-year-old, who teaches social studies at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge, was also seen massaging the victim, according to a witness statement

The 29-year-old, who teaches social studies at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge, was also seen massaging the victim, according to a witness statement

Prosecutors said Myers ‘abused her position as a trusted authority figure,’ requesting a $50,000 bail. 

But Judge Laura Drager denied the request and released her on her own recognizance, according to the Post. Drager issued a 30-day order of protection which mandates Myers must stay away from the victim.

Police were notified of the alleged sexual encounter after the victim, who is thought to be one of Myers’ students, told one of his classmates. 

That classmates told a school administrator, who notified the police, according to the Post. 

The criminal complaint claims the assault took place somewhere in Upper Manhattan on November 1. 

Myers denies the allegations, according to her lawyer Andrew Stoll. 

She lives in Rockland County where her husband is sheriff’s deputy. 

The Department of Education has called the allegations 'deeply troubling,' but said Myers has no prior disciplinary history. She hasn't been fired, but was reassigned 'away from students'

The Department of Education has called the allegations ‘deeply troubling,’ but said Myers has no prior disciplinary history. She hasn’t been fired, but was reassigned ‘away from students’

Myers is pictured with her husband, Rockland County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Myers 

Myers is pictured with her husband, Rockland County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Myers 

Stoll told the Post that Myers started a track team at the Bronx high school – where she has worked since 2014.

‘It takes just one person’s accusation to make an arrest in this town and she’s a model citizen who looks forward to clearing her name,’ Stoll explained. 

The teacher’s Facebook page showed a series of smiling photos in which she laughed with friends and drank straight out of champagne bottles before it was deleted. 

Myers also wrote about her students and partying in a number of different posts. 

In several now-deleted photos she wore shirts with catchy slogans referencing alcohol – such as ‘Whisky makes me frisky’ and ‘Champagne all day.’ 

In a tweet from 2015, which has now been deleted, Myers bragged that her students often commented on her looks. 

‘Ms. You’re like, real pretty, but, no offense, you got a big forehead,’ she claims one student told her. 

The Department of Education has called the allegations ‘deeply troubling,’ but said Myers has no prior disciplinary history. She hasn’t been fired, but was reassigned ‘away from students.’   


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At Least 5 Killed in Afghan Hotel Attack That Trapped Hundreds of Guests

A security official said at least five people were found dead inside, while authorities continued to search for the remaining attackers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information on the attack.

As the fighting took place, Mr. Rauf and hundreds of other guests spent the night hiding in rooms, wondering whether they would live or die. They were still there at dawn Sunday as sporadic gunfire continued, and most were still alive.

“Why can’t the police rescue us?” Mr. Rauf said, after five hours in his second-floor hotel room. He said he lay there listening to gunfire and taking cellphone calls, with his phone on silent.

In another room on the second floor of the six-story, 200-room hotel, Haji Saheb Nazar, 45, also an employee of Afghan Telecoms, hunkered down in the toilet cubicle. He was so convinced he would not survive the night that he called home to say his goodbyes. “I told my family that maybe I would be killed, I didn’t know.”

Photo

A view of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2016. The hotel was attacked in 2011 in a similar incident.

Credit
Mohammad Ismail/Reuters

On the street outside, the men’s boss, Minister of Telecommunications Shahzad Aryobee, was frustrated that the police would not let him get close to the building, which was partially in flames, as occasional explosions broke out. Mr. Aryobee tried to reach by phone the 105 staff members he said were inside to reassure them. “I’m here, I won’t leave you, help is coming,” he said.

There was little the minister could do but look on helplessly as the night wore on, with temperatures well below freezing, until morning came and authorities claimed they had retaken control of the hotel.

It was the latest in a series of serious attacks on the Afghan capital that have alarmed residents and undermined confidence in the government’s ability to cope with a worsening security situation.

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There were fears of a much larger death toll, in part because similar attacks have proven more deadly. But in the morning, the security official said only five bodies had been found, with half of the building still uncleared.

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However, officials indicated they did not have yet have full control of the hotel.

“Our special forces are entering the building,” said Gen. Afzal Aman, commander of the Kabul Garrison, an elite unit of police and soldiers that is responsible for security in the capital, who was reached by cellphone at the scene. “The attackers are at one side of the building. There are guests trapped in their rooms. We do not know who are the attackers.”

Hotels in Kabul have long been a favored target of various insurgents, and Saturday’s attack was the second time gunmen forced their way inside that hotel; in a 2011 attack, they went room to room, executing anyone they found.

The Intercontinental is one of the most heavily guarded places in the capital and benefits from sitting on a fortified hilltop. It is also a symbol of the Afghan state. Built in the 1970s as part of the Intercontinental Hotels chain, it was seized by the government after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During the ensuing civil war it was heavily damaged in shelling by rival mujahedeen factions, then rebuilt after the Taliban were defeated.

Now, most of its 200 rooms are occupied by government officials and official guests; foreigners rarely stay there because of security concerns.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent months, the Islamic State’s Afghan faction has claimed it carried out several high-profile attacks in the capital, and others have been attributed to the Haqqani Network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban.

President Trump has vowed to cut off aid to Pakistan because it has continued to give shelter to insurgents, but the Taliban have also proven adept at encouraging more attacks in Afghanistan when it has served their interests.


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