KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Four suicide bombers and at least two gunmen attacked a Western-style hotel in Kabul late Tuesday night and police who rushed to the scene fought the assailants with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, Afghan officials said.
Samoonyar Mohammad Zaman, a security officer for the Ministry of Interior, said the insurgents were armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades. They were using grenade launchers, he said.
Zaman said there were 60 to 70 guests at the Inter-Continental hotel, which is frequented by Afghan political leaders and foreign visitors. Afghan national security forces were moving inside the blacked out hotel slowly as to not frighten or hurt any guests, he said.
"I saw the bodies of two suicide bombers at the main entrance of the hotel," he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said all the suicide bombers either blew themselves up or were killed while two gunmen continued to fire from the roof.
Associated Press reporters at the scene said the two sides fought with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. They saw tracer rounds go up over the darkened hotel and saw shooting from the roof of the five-story building in the rare, nighttime attack in the Afghan capital.
Police ordered bystanders to lie on the ground for safety.
There was no immediate word from Afghan officials on casualties among the guests or workers inside the hotel.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility in a telephone call to the AP.
Mujahid later issued a statement claiming that Taliban attackers killed guards at a gate and entered the hotel.
"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. We are in the corridors of the hotel now taking guests out of their rooms - mostly foreigners. We broke down the doors and took them out one by one.'"
A guest who was inside said he heard gunfire echoing throughout the heavily guarded building. The hotel sits on a hill overlooking the city and streets leading up to it were blocked. The scene was dark as electricity at the hotel and the surrounding area was out.
Azizullah, an Afghan police officer who uses only one name, told an Associated Press reporter at the scene that at least one bomber entered the hotel and detonated a vest of explosives. Another police officer, who would not disclose his name, said there were at least two suicide bombers.