Suicide attack hits Afghan five-star hotel, killing four (Roundup)

Jan 14, 2008, 17:10 GMT

Kabul - A suicide attack in a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital on Monday killed at least four people during a visit by Norway's foreign minister, who was reported to be at the hotel at the time of blast, but was unharmed, officials said.

The former ruling Taliban, meanwhile, claimed responsibility, saying four of their fighters stormed the hotel.

'So far our information says that four were killed and six wounded,' Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, but did not give more detail regarding the identity of the victims.

At least two militants tried to enter the fortified Serena Hotel in Kabul city on Monday night; a police source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity told dpa earlier.

The militants threw hand grenades at the guards and killed two of them, while the third attacker jumped inside the hotel compound and detonated himself, the official said, adding that the guards also opened fire at the attackers.

Taliban spokesman Zabeeullah Mujahid said four of the militant group's fighters attacked the hotel and opened fire on the 'foreign guests and local police guards, killing several of them.'

'As three of our hero mujahideen opened fire on the guests, the fourth one detonated the explosives hidden around his body, causing a huge explosion,' Mujahid told dpa by phone from an undisclosed location.

The area around the only city's five-star hotel was cordoned off by Afghan security forces and reporters were not allowed to get closer to the site.

In Oslo, media and government reports noted that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store was staying in the hotel.

The Foreign Ministry said Store was unharmed in the attack. Store had arrived with a 10-person delegation earlier Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kristin Melsom told the Norwegian news agency NTB that 'according to what we know Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store is unharmed and is safe in the basement of the hotel.' She said there were reports that the hotel would be evacuated, but said details were sketchy due to the chaos.

Earlier, a report by the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said two Norwegian nationals, a Foreign Ministry official and a photographer for the daily Dagbladet newspaper, had been injured in the attack.

But the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said it had no information about any Norwegian nationals being injured.

Taliban militants, whose government was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001, have recently heavily relied on the use of suicide and roadside attacks. The militants carried out more than 140 last year, a record year since the Taliban's ousting.