At least 10 people were killed in a brazen, carefully-orchestrated attack on a Kabul hotel that began Tuesday night, officials said. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the siege, and authorities say eight militants were also killed.
Two police officers are among the dead in the attack that raged into the early hours of Wednesday at the Hotel Inter-Continental, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. Officials described the eight others as civilians.
"As a result of Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and Coalition force's fast reaction and by air support of the NATO forces, eight suicide bombers were killed," the ministry said in a statement.
As many as three of the attackers did not blow themselves up, but were fatally shot, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.
It was not clear how many of the assailants detonated their explosives. Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the city's chief of police, said at least one of the attackers did.
Casualty figures could rise, Mohammad Zahir, chief of criminal investigations for Kabul police, said Wednesday.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/29/afghanistan.kabul.attack/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
