At least 10 dead in Taliban attack on Kabul hotel

Several suicide bombers and four gunmen attacked a large hotel frequented by Westerners in Afghanistan's capital late last night.

Afghan police fought the assailants, who had blasted their way into the InterContinental Hotel, with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades for several hours.

Local Afghanistan news agency TOLO reported at least 10 people had been killed in the attack, although there was no immediate word from Afghan officials on casualties among the guests or hotel workers. All the suicide bombers either blew themselves up or were killed while two gunmen continued to fire from the roof late into the evening, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

"There are foreign and Afghan guests staying at the hotel," he said. "We have reports that they are safe in their rooms, but still there is shooting."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying fighters from the Islamist group had inflicted heavy casualties in the attack. In a statement he said: "One of our fighters called on a mobile phone and said: 'We have gotten onto all the hotel floors and the attack is going according to the plan. We have killed and wounded 50 foreign and local enemies.'"

Samoonyar Mohammad Zaman, a security officer for the Interior Ministry, said some Afghan provincial governors were staying at the hotel and some of them had left.

Jawid, a guest at the hotel, said he jumped out a one-story window to flee the shooting. "I was running with my family," he said. "There was shooting. The restaurant was full with guests."

Earlier yesterday, officials from the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan met in the capital to discuss prospects for making peace with Taliban insurgents to end the nearly decade-long war. The attack comes nearly a week after President Barack Obama announced he was withdrawing 33,000 US troops from Afghanistan and would end the American combat role by the end of 2014.