Gunfire and explosions rock Kabul suburb as firefight breaks out between Afghan police and insurgents

Interior Minister says two attackers were killed and that authorities do not know how many were involved in the assault

Afghan policemen arrive near the site of an attack in Kabul (Reuters)

Heavily armed insurgents have stormed a guesthouse in an upscale suburb of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, battling security forces for more than two hours.

Explosions rocked the Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood which is home to several embassies and gunfire fizzed as police battled the insurgents.

As the fighting raged, officers later smashed lights to cover their movements and set up roadblocks.

“A group of insurgents has entered a guesthouse,” Kabul police chief spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said although he declined to name which one.

There was no immediate word on casualties, although Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayub Salangi told the Associated Press that two attackers had been killed.

Authorities didn't know how many were involved in the assault, he added.

Afghan and Western security sources said the target could be a compound owned by a prominent political family and used by foreigners, or a building next to it.

Local media reports have claimed the target was the Rabbani Guesthouse which is owned by the prominent Rabbani family.

The clan includes the country's current Foreign Minister, Salahuddin Rabbani, and the late Burhanuddin Rabbani, who served as president of Afghanistan from 1992 until 1996.

Once known as the Heetal Hotel, it was damaged in a December 2009 suicide car bomb attack near the home of former Afghan Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud, which killed eight people and wounded nearly 40.

It was the country’s second attack of the day, as earlier, a suicide bomber blew himself up during an assault on a court in the capital of Wardak province, some 25 miles from Kabul.

Three other men exchanged fire with police before being killed said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor.

On Monday, militants killed at least 26 police officers and soldiers in ambushes in southern Helmand province.

As police retreated, militants surrounded the police headquarters of Naw Zad district and fired down on them from surrounding hills, district police chief Napas Khan said.

Officials in Uruzgan province said they risked losing the district to the Taliban after a string of attacks on checkpoints over the last fortnight.

“We are not getting any response from senior officials in Kabul,” district chief Abdul Karim Karimi said. “Unless we get government help, we are going to lose the district.”