Six UN staff dead as militants storm Kabul guesthouse (2nd Lead)

Oct 28, 2009, 6:06 GMT

   Kabul - Six UN workers were killed Wednesday when an explosion rocked a guesthouse used by the United Nations in Kabul and armed attackers burst in, sparking a gunbattle, a UN spokesman said.

   Other UN personnel were injured in the attack in central Kabul, Aleem Siddique said.

   Police at the scene said the firefight lasted an hour and a half and ended with all the militants killed or captured. One officer said seven people had attacked the guesthouse, which is in a neighbourhood where offices and residential compounds for expatriates are located.

   The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militants, said by telephone from an undisclosed location that five Taliban fighters equipped with suicide vests and weapons stormed the guesthouse, targeting UN staff working on next month's presidential runoff.

   The Taliban had warned at the weekend that it would target all Afghans and foreigners working on the November 7 election, and Mujahid said the strike in Kabul was the beginning of such attacks.

   A plume of smoke could be seen rising from the area after the blast that touched off the attack.

   A second explosion also rocked the Afghan capital Wednesday morning. It detonated near the Serena Hotel, Kabul's only five-star hotel, which is located near the presidential palace.

   Police cordoned off the area around the hotel, which was the scene of a suicide bombing in January 2008 that killed six people, and police vehicles and fire trucks rushed to the scene.

   Taliban militants have stormed buildings in the Afghan capital recently, including government offices and a bank a day before the August 20 presidential election.

   The Taliban had substantially increased their attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan ahead of the August election and vowed to also disrupt the November runoff.

   An unknown number of foreign UN staff members and civilians were in the guesthouse at the time of the attack, Siddique said.

   The nationalities of the casualties were not immediately released.