At least four people have been killed in a Taliban assault on a hotel at a Kabul beauty spot, the Afghan interior ministry said on Friday.
Three hotel guards and at least one policeman were killed in the attack at Qargha lake on the outskirts of the city, ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.
Afghan cops and coalition troops are responding to the assault at the site at Qargha Lake on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, a front man for NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) told AFP.
The target appeared to be Afghan police and civilians, Isaf said, adding there were reports of police and civilian casualties.
The assault, claimed by the Taliban, came just hours after President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
warned that attacks against local police and soldiers were increasing as they prepare to take over security when NATO combat troops leave in 2014.
Mohammad Zahir, the head of Kabul police criminal investigation department, said the attack began around 11:30 pm on Thursday, when suicide attackers armed with rockets and Kalashnikov rifles stormed a gathering at the Spozhmai Hotel.
At least one of the attackers detonated his explosive boom jacket, Zahir said.
Kabul deputy police chief Daoud Amin said that according to hotel guards, there were three attackers inside the hotel, as well as numerous civilians.
Witnesses fleeing the scene said the attackers were holding hostages.
Security forces began an operation to end the assault around 5:30 am, police said, and an AFP photographer at the scene heard automatic gunfire and saw two NATO helicopters overhead.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a front man for the Taliban, said in a text message that fighters had launched strikes on two hotels used by foreigners. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
police and security officials have only confirmed one hotel was attacked.
Qargha lies around 10 kilometres from central Kabul and its pleasant weather and greenery make it a popular picnic spot for daytrippers from the capital. The lake is surrounded by hotels, restaurants and wedding halls.
Taliban violence has surged in recent days with a series of attacks on Afghan-NATO military posts.
This week's biggest attack came on Wednesday when a jacket wallah on a
cycle of violence rammed a joint Afghan-NATO patrol in the eastern city of Khost, close to the Pakistain border, killing 21 people including three US soldiers.The hotel attack will heighten fears about security as NATO prepares to hand responsibility to Afghan forces and recall the vast majority of its 130,000 combat troops.
Karzai on Thursday admitted his government and its Western allies had failed to bring peace to Afghanistan, which has suffered almost continuous conflict for the past three decades, saying "our land has not been secured, our homes, our people are not safe".
In April snuffies launched coordinated attacks on government offices, embassies and foreign bases in Kabul in the biggest assault on the Afghan capital in 10 years of war.