KABUL – At least 10 people were reported to have been killed after a top hotel in Afghanistan’s capital was attacked by five suicide bombers last night.
Fighting was still ongoing at the Intercontinental Hotel as police cleared the hotel after the attack claimed by the Taliban.
Four blasts and bursts of gunfire heard after the attack, police and witnesses said.
“The clearing of the Intercontinental is still going on. It’s not over yet,” said Mohammad Zahir, the head of the Kabul police crime unit. He said security forces were exchanging fire with up to six assailants inside the hotel.
The attack at the Intercontinental Hotel, one of Kabul’s two main hotels, came the night before a conference about the gradual transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans was about to begin.
The hotel was not one of the venues to be used by the conference or its delegates, an Afghan government official said.
One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more at least an hour later, one witness said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.
Mujahid, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.
The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.
The police source said a wedding party was under way when the attack happened.
Police put up roadblocks immediately after the blast, stopping people from approaching the area, and power was cut in the hotel and surrounding areas.
Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May, with attacks in areas across the country.
The increase in violence comes as Nato-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month, at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014. – (Reuters)