NATO quells siege by Taliban at Afghan hotel

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said six suicide bombers attacked the Inter-Continental hotel frequented by Afghan officials and foreign visitors. He said two were killed by hotel guards at the beginning of the attack and four others either blew themselves up or were killed in the airstrike or by Afghan security forces.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the rare, nighttime attack in the capital — an apparent attempt to show that they remain potent despite heavy pressure from coalition and Afghan security forces.

The attackers were heavily armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, and grenade launchers, Afghan officials said. Afghan police rushed to the scene and firefights broke out. They battled for hours with gunmen who took up positions on the roof.

Some Afghan provincial officials were among the 60 to 70 guests staying at the hotel.

Abdul Zahir Faizada, who is head of the local council in Herat Province, was staying at the hotel. He planned to attend a conference in Kabul today to discuss plans for Afghan forces to take the lead for securing an increasing number of areas of the country between now and 2014 when international forces are expected to move out of combat roles.

“We were locked in a room. Everybody was shooting and firing,’’ said Faizada who was staying at the hotel with the mayor of Herat city and other officials.

Deputy police chief in Kabul, Daoud Amin, said seven people died in the attack and eight other people — two policemen and six civilians — were wounded. The attackers are not counted in that death toll.

Nazar Ali Wahedi, chief of intelligence for Helmand Province, called the assailants “the enemy of stability and peace.’’

He was in town to attend today’s transition conference.

The attack began around 10:30 p.m. local time yesterday and ended around 3 a.m. today.

US Army Major Jason Waggoner, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, said the helicopters fired on the roof where militants had taken up positions. He said they killed three gunmen and that Afghan security forces worked their way up to the roof and engaged the remaining insurgents.

As the helicopters attacked and Afghan security forces moved in, four massive explosions rocked the hotel. Officials at the scene said the blasts occurred when security forces either fired on suicide bombers or they blew themselves up.

After the gunmen were killed, the hotel lights that had been blacked out during the attack came back on.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid quickly claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the AP, then 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.’ ’’

The Taliban often exaggerate casualties from their attacks. The statement did not disclose the number of attackers, but said one suicide bomber had died.

A few hours into the clashes, an Afghan National Army commando unit arrived at the scene.

Initially, the US-led military coalition said the Afghan Ministry of Interior had not requested any assistance from foreign forces. But later, the NATO helicopters arrived at the hotel.

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.’’

The attack occurred nearly a week after President Obama said he was withdrawing 33,000 US troops from Afghanistan and would end the American combat role by the end of 2014.

Before the attack began yesterday, officials from the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan met in the capital to discuss prospects for making peace with Taliban insurgents to end the nearly decade-long war.

“The fact that we are discussing reconciliation in great detail is success and progress, but challenges remain and we are reminded of that on an almost daily basis by violence,’’ Jawed Ludin, Afghanistan’s deputy foreign minister, said at a news conference. “The important thing is that we act and that we act urgently and try to do what we can to put an end to violence.’’

The Inter-Continental opened in the late 1960s, and was the nation’s first international hotel. It has at least 200 rooms and was once part of an international chain. But when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the hotel had to fend for itself.

It was used by Western journalists during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Attacks in the Afghan capital have been relatively rare, although violence has increased since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid in Pakistan and the start of the Taliban’s annual spring offensive.