Taliban bombers target luxury hotel, 18 dead

The Taliban says suicide attackers entered after killing security guards "The death number may increase," a chief of criminal investigations says "I wrote my little will -- just in case," a hotel guest says after the ordeal

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight suicide bombers attacked Kabul's Hotel Inter-Continental in a brazen, carefully orchestrated operation that began Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday, ending with their deaths and those of 10 others, officials said.

Two police officers are among the dead, according to the Interior Ministry.

"As a result of Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and Coalition force's fast reaction and by air support of the NATO forces, eight suicide bombers were killed," the ministry said in a statement.

Mohammad Zahir, chief of criminal investigations for Kabul police, said Wednesday morning that casualty figures could rise.

"We are still searching the hotel; the death number may increase," Zahir said. Twelve people were injured, he added.

Interior Minister Bismullah Khan said "the situation is secure."

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said in an e-mail that the suicide attackers entered the hotel after killing security guards at the entrance.

"One of the suicide attackers told us on the phone that they are in the lobby and chasing guests into their rooms by smashing the doors of the rooms," Mujahid told CNN in an e-mail he sent as the incident was unfolding.

The top of the hotel was ablaze, but flames were gone within a few hours. Smoke continued to rise from the building Wednesday morning.

By dawn, security forces were allowing reporters to approach the hotel, and some guests were seen departing.

Saiz Ahmed, a U.S. citizen in Kabul for a Ph.D. project, was among them. "I'm sure none of us thought we were going to make it," he said after having stayed on the floor of his darkened bedroom for more than five hours listening to gunfire and occasional bomb blasts. "I wrote my little will -- just in case."

The Taliban penetrated the hotel's typically heavy security in the attack, and one of them detonated an explosion on the second floor, said Erin Cunningham, a journalist for The Daily in Kabul.

Rocket-propelled grenades were launched from the roof of the hotel toward the first vice president's house. A few moments later, the hotel was rocked by three explosions, one of which knocked her off her feet, Cunningham said. U.S. forces were on the scene, she added.

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At about 2 a.m., four hours after the attack began, International Security Assistance Force helicopters fired at insurgents on the roof, killing as many as three of the gunmen, ISAF spokesman Maj. Tim James told CNN.

An hour later, ISAF said the Afghan security forces had cleared the roof and were clearing the rest of the hotel.

At 4 a.m., police believed that all the attackers were dead, "but one was alive and hidden and he started to resist" and continued to do so until 6:20 a.m., Zahir said.

At least one of the attackers detonated his explosives, said Afghan Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the city's chief of police.

There were no indications that U.S. military or diplomatic personnel were at the hotel, U.S. officials told CNN.

A news conference had been scheduled to take place in Kabul on Wednesday to discuss the planned transition of security from international to Afghan forces that U.S. President Barack Obama announced last week. Obama was briefed on the attack while en route back to Washington from Iowa, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Members of the Afghan National Security Forces were on the scene, but the city police had the lead, ISAF Maj. Jason Waggoner said in a statement. Waggoner said ISAF forces provided "some limited assistance."

The United States condemned the attack on the hotel, with State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saying it "once again demonstrates the terrorists' complete disregard for human life."

The hotel was developed by the InterContinental Hotels Group and opened in 1969. But it has had no association with the group since the Soviet invasion in 1979, though it continues to use the name and logo without connection to the parent company.

The incident came on the same day that Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell announced that NATO and other members of the international community involved in Afghanistan have decided to increase the number of security forces in the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police to 352,000.

The current number of Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police is about 300,000, the commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan and commanding general of the Combined Security Transition Command told the Atlanta Press Club.

The increased number will be sufficient to give the Afghans security without coalition forces having to do it, he said.

Tuesday's attack recalls a November 2008 assault on luxury hotels in Mumbai, India, which left more than 160 dead, including nine of the 10 gunmen who launched the attacks.

Officials said the gunmen targeted the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal hotels for their popularity with international travelers and tourists. The Taj Mahal was set afire.

The three-day stand-off between gunmen and police ended with the capture of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman. Kasab was sentenced to death in 2010 and is awaiting an appeal of the decision to the Supreme Court in New Delhi. India says Kasab has told investigators that he and the others were trained for more than a year in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a banned Islamic militant group.

CNN's Reza Sayah in Islamabad, Pakistan; Matiullah Mati in Kabul, Afghanistan; Tom Watkins in Atlanta; Barbara Starr, Larry Shaughnessy and Elise Labott in Washington; and journalist Jonathan Boone in Kabul contributed to this report.

CNN

China super rich set to propel luxury yacht sales

HONG KONG — With their sleek, modern lines and polished finish, the two yachts built by Samuel Wong's shipyard fit right in among the multimillion-dollar floating palaces moored at a tony Hong Kong yacht club.

var data = blocks.columnist;if (data != undefined){document.getElementById('columnistmug').innerHTML=data;} Kin Cheung, AP

Staff members take pictures on the Chinese-made yacht Accelera 83 at a boat show in Hong Kong on May 6, 2011.

Kin Cheung, AP

Staff members take pictures on the Chinese-made yacht Accelera 83 at a boat show in Hong Kong on May 6, 2011.

Onboard, a disco ball, karaoke system and garish neon blue accent lighting in the living quarters are hints that the vessel is aimed at the luxury yacht industry's newest growth market: wealthy Chinese.

Yacht makers are hoping they will be the latest to benefit from China's booming economy, which is creating a growing class of wealthy tycoons splurging on luxury lifestyle pursuits. Rich Chinese are already known for spending lavish sums of money on flashy apartments, designer labels such as Louis Vuitton and high-end cars such as Porsches and Rolls-Royces.

"People in China first will buy houses. Then cars. Then the next step will be the yacht industry," Wong said hopefully at a recent boat expo in Hong Kong. His family-owned shipyard located in Zhuhai, across the border from Macau in mainland China, has been building fishing and house boats for 40 years.

Two years ago, it expanded into luxury yachts under the Accelera brand, a name chosen for its vaguely European sound. That illustrates another recent trend: Chinese companies are expanding into high-end boatbuilding, a field traditionally dominated by the Americans and Europeans. But in Wong's favor are high import duties for foreign yachts, part of China's strategy to help companies in a range of industries develop into global competitors.

About 20 companies in China, including 11 backed by foreign investment, are producing superyachts, which some define as longer than 80 feet. Hong Kong-based Kingship Marine is building a 144-footer at its yard in Zhongshan in China's southern Guangdong province. The company hasn't found a buyer yet for the $27 million vessel, which is the biggest being built in China, but Managing Director Roger Liang believes there won't be any shortage of interest.

China is "just like Russia five years ago. Suddenly Russia became a very important player, so this could happen to China," he said, a reference to billionaires such as Roman Abramovich, who owns at least three yachts.

Yacht companies report that China sales started taking off two years ago, raising the possibility that some are being bought with improperly diverted stimulus money and bank lending that flooded the economy as part of government efforts to deflect the 2008 financial crisis. However, sailing experts say many are also being bought by young entrepreneurs who have made fortunes taking their companies public.

China's yachting industry is still in its infancy but local governments are hoping for rapid expansion.

The city of Tianjin is building a 9-billion yuan ($1.4 billion) yacht port that will be the country's largest, with 750 berths to accommodate luxury yachts up to 295 feet long, according to a report in the China Daily newspaper.

Hainan Island on the southern coast, meanwhile, is being positioned as the Chinese Riviera. Qingdao, Xiamen and other ports along China's 9,000 mile coastline are also being developed to attract the yachting crowd.

There's no shortage of wealthy Chinese with money to spend on luxury motor yachts, a notoriously expensive pasttime. China has 875,000 millionaires and nearly half of them want to buy a boat, according to a survey last year by the Hurun Report, China's version of the Forbes Rich List.

There is plenty of room for growth, with about 1,300 private yachts in China, according to figures cited by state media. In the U.S., the world's biggest yacht market, there are 17 million privately owned recreational boats, according to industry publication International Boating Industry.

However, some sailing enthusiasts are skeptical and say China still has a long way to go before it can rival the superyacht's natural habitats of the Mediterranean or Caribbean.

One problem is murky regulations that vary from province to province. Some cities have rules governing boat ownership and how and where they can be operated, while others don't. That makes it difficult for sailors to make longer journeys.

Poor sailing infrastructure is also a problem, with relatively few experienced staff at a small number of marinas, some of which are located in the middle of industrial areas.

Meanwhile, imported boats are subject to an import duty of at least 43% compared with about 15% for locally made watercraft. Some yachting experts believe the Chinese government is using the tax to help develop the country's fledgling yacht building industry.

"The Chinese really want to control it, up to the point where probably their own industry has developed to a level that it can run by itself," said Bart Kimman, who runs a yacht management company based in Hong Kong.

To get around red tape, Chinese yacht owners are buying and registering boats in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with a separate legal system.

Albert Wu, general manager of the Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club, said an increasing number of his 220 berths are occupied by mainland Chinese-owned boats.

Stiff duties don't seem to be deterring status-conscious Chinese from buying ships from established American and European boatbuilders.

Frankie Chan, who traveled with his boss from Beijing to visit the show, was planning to buy five British-made Sunseeker boats.

Chan is vice president of Oursjia, which rents out luxury cars and high-end furniture to 500,000 clients in 60 cities around China. About 10% of them have been requesting luxury yachts.

The pair were inspecting two 60-footers that their company would take delivery of, including a sleek, black Predator model costing about 20 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.6 million). They also plan to buy three others that are at least 90 feet long, and come fitted with flat screen televisions, full size fridges and a rear "garage" hatch to stow dinghies, jetskis and other toys.

Chan and his boss plan to travel to Italy later in May to look for more boats to buy. Eventually, they want to have a fleet of 50 yachts from a range of brands based at marinas around China.

"You can't compare with the European boats. If you talk about high-end boats, European boats are the best," said Chan.

Gordon Hui, managing director of Sunseeker Asia, said that until two years ago, it had almost no sales to Chinese customers. Since then, he's sold about 25 boats to Chinese customers and the market now accounts for 8% to 10% of the company's annual production of about 200 yachts a year.

Chinese shipyards are hoping to compete with their foreign rivals by undercutting them on price. Wong's company sells three yachts under the Accelera brand, including a 98-footer that sells for HK$38 million ($4.9 million). Wong reckons that's a quarter of the cost of a comparable American or European model. The company equips its boats with imported generators and other equipment but benefits from lower labor costs at its shipyard in Zhuhai, just over the border from Macau.

Wong has sold some 10 vessels, including one to a company boss from China who paid his deposit of several million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

"We couldn't it count it quickly enough, so we had to go buy a cash-counting machine," he said.

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