Taliban in Afghanistan

Responsibility for three deadly attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May was claimed by the Islamic fundamentalist group the Taliban. 

In the deadliest attack, on May 14, Taliban gunmen stormed the Park Palace Guest Hotel and killed 14 people, including an American. Afghani forces retook the building, killing two of the gunmen and rescuing at least 50 people.

On May 17, a Taliban suicide bomber killed three people and injured at least 11 near Hamid Karzai International Airport. On May 19, a car bomb struck outside of government offices, killing four people.

Earlier in the year, in March, President Obama announced that the US would maintain a force of 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, revising his original plan of reducing the number of American troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 by the end of 2015.