Gunmen blaze away at guests in Kabul’s landmark Intercontinental Hotel

Four gunmen attacked Kabul’s landmark Intercontinental Hotel yesterday and started shooting at guests in an assault that was continuing late last night.

“Four attackers are inside the building,” an official at the National Directorate of Security intelligence agency said. They are “shooting at guests”. Another official said the attackers were armed with small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades when they entered the hotel, which often hosts weddings, conferences and political gatherings.

“They are now on the third and fourth floors fighting with our forces,” interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. “We don’t know the details of casualties yet but they set the kitchen on fire.”

The fourth floor of the hotel was also on fire, the agency official said.

There was no immediate information on casualties in the latest attack on the state-owned 1960s hotel, which is not part of the global InterContinental chain.

Some of the occupants inside the hotel were hiding on the second floor, a security source said.

A guest hiding in his room in the hotel said: “I don’t know if the attackers are inside the hotel but I can hear gunfire from somewhere near the first floor.

“We are hiding in our rooms. I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us.”

Electricity was cut after an initial explosion at the hilltop hotel, a counter-terrorism source said.

The Intercontinental was last targeted in June 2011 when a suicide attack claimed by the Taliban killed 21 people, including 10 civilians.

Security in Kabul has been tightened since May 31 when a massive truck bomb ripped through the diplomatic quarter, killing about 150 people and wounding 400 others, mostly civilians. No group has yet claimed that attack.

The deadliest of the recent attacks happened at a Shiite cultural centre on December 29 when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing more than 40 people.