Afghan security forces outside of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, following Taliban a
Afghan security forces outside of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, following Taliban aREUTERS

The president of a Florida-based public relations company and president of his Tampa synagogue was one of four Americans killed in an attack on a hotel in Kabul.

Glenn Selig was one of 22 people killed in a 13-hour siege by the Taliban on Saturday on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, the State Department announced in Wednesday. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said their target was foreign forces, including U.S. troops.

Selig was in Kabul to explore a potential counter-extremism project for his public relations agency, Selig Multimedia, the Tampa Bay Times reported. He reportedly was staying at the Intercontinental Hotel.

“Glenn was in Kabul on a potential success story involving Afghanistan and its steps to battle extremism. The focus was highlighting the country’s new president and constructing a democracy forum event for Afghani women,” his company said in a statement, according to CNN.

Prior to working in public relations, Selig was a reporter and anchor in Florida markets, including Fox 13 in Tampa and WNEM-TV, a CBS affiliate in Michigan. In recent months he served as spokesman for Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates, who faces criminal charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Gates has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Selig, 50, the father of two sons, was the two-term president of Congregation Mekor Shalom, a conservative synagogue in Tampa.

The attack comes on the heels of a suicide bombing in Kabul on December 28th which left at least 41 dead and more than 80 others injured.

Earlier this week, relatives of an American Jewish man reported that they have been unable to confirm his whereabouts following the attack.

According to a report by Behadrei Haredim, the missing man, identified only by his first name, Elyakim, is a graduate of Yeshiva Gedolah Ateres Mordechai in Oak Park, Michigan and is said to be in his mid-50s.

“I’m just shocked by the report that he’s gone missing,” a friend and former study partner told Behadrei Haredim. “He was a very dedicated [Torah] student, he loved to learn nonstop.”

“I know his mother well – she is a good friend of my mother. This is a terrible tragedy for her. She’s a widow, and he was all she had in the entire world.”

“I haven’t been in contact with him over the past few years, and I don’t know what he was doing in Afghanistan.”