When a luxury hotel in Kabul was attacked by the Taliban last night, one American wanted to get his house in order while the house was literally crumbling around him.
Saiz Ahmed is a doctoral student who was in Kabul studying Afghan legal history. He had just finished dinner and gone back to his room in the Intercontinental Hotel when he started hearing loud noises around the building. It wasn’t until later that he realized they were explosions.
Ahmed, while lying down on the floor of his hotel room, did the only thing he could think to do.
(PHOTOS: Coalition Raid Ends Attack on Kabul Hotel)
“I wrote my little will, just in case,” he said with an embarassed laugh to CNN. Ahmed said he wanted to make sure all his possessions were given to charity, as is customary in Islamic law.
Luckily, Ahmed was able to escape with the joint help of International Security Assistance Force and Afghan troops. NATO forces in helicopters also helped end the siege. The seven Taliban members have been killed as well as 11 others.
He’s still worried about being able to reach his family, and pleaded to CNN to help him reach his family and the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan. He also asked the network to discover if his best friend’s father, who was staying in the hotel just a floor below, was still alive. “I figure you can find out better than me,” he said.
