[Al Jazeera] Gunmen and jacket wallahs have attacked a major hotel in Afghanistan's capital, leading to a battle that drew in helicopters from the NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
-led force.
All the attackers have been killed, the Afghan interior ministry said on Wednesday.
"We believe between six and seven attackers have been killed," Interior Ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi told Rooters news agency. "All have been killed."
After the hotel was plunged into darkness during the five-hour-long raid, Sediqqi said that lights were back on at the Intercontinental, one of two major hotels frequented by Westerners in Kabul.
The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan said two of its helicopters fired on and killed three fighters on the rooftop of the hotel.
Afghan officials said at least five suicide bombers attacked Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, one of two major hotels frequented by Westerners in Kabul,
Local police sources told Al Jizz that the attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday night after a firefight outside. At least one of them let 'er rip, they said.
Guests were being evacuated, but some were still inside, police said.
Bystanders were ordered to lay down on the ground for their own safety as the Afghan police battled the attackers with machine guns and other weapons.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported that rocket-propelled grenades and tracer rounds could be seen and heard being fired at the site. AP news hounds at the scene said they could hear bursts of gunfire and shooting from the roof of the five-storey building.
Samoonyar Mohammad Zaman, a security officer for interior ministry, said the attackers were armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades. They were using grenade launchers, he said.
Bette Dam, an independent journalist who was at the scene, told Al Jizz that gunfire had gone on for "hours after hours", and that she had seen rocket-propelled grenades being fired.
She reported hearing two loud kabooms at the site, though it was unclear what caused them. She described the attack as "very coordinated".
The Afghan interior ministry says that all of the "suicide bombers" have either detonated themselves or been killed.
"There are foreign and Afghan guests staying at the hotel,'' Sediq Sediqqi, a front man, said. "We have reports that they are safe in their rooms, but still there is shooting.''
Zaman said there were 60-70 guests at the hotel, and that he had seen the bodies of two suicide bombers at the main entrance to the hotel.
Seddiqi said that two gunnies continued to fire from the roof of the hotel.