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Kabul, Afghanistan: Militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked Kabul's most popular luxury hotel yesterday evening, killing at least one person and wounding several others in a coordinated assault rarely seen in the Afghan capital, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said.
The 6:12pm local time attack came on a night the Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting at the Serena Hotel. A US citizen inside said she saw what she believed to be a dead body and pools of blood in the lobby. She said three foreigners had been wounded.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel - one suicide bomber, and three militants. They allegedly threw grenades, fired guns and then fled.
The claim, which quickly followed the attack, could not be independently verified.
Five ambulances and US troops in Humvees rushed to the hotel. Police kept journalists and onlookers at a distance from the building.
Stian L. Solum, a photographer from the Norwegian photo agency Scanpix, said a Norwegian journalist from the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet and a Norwegian diplomatic staff member were injured in the explosion.
He said Norway's Foreign Minster Jonas Gahr Stoere, currently visiting Kabul, was not injured and was safe in the hotel basement.
"There were two or three bombs, and there was complete chaos," Solum said on the state radio network NRK.
"When I started to walk out [of the elevator] a bomb went off, a little way from me. There were shots fired by what I think was an ANA (Afghan National Army) soldier.
A Dagbladet journalist was shot and wounded and an American medical team was here and helped him." He said the wounded did not appear to have life-threatening injuries.
The Serena is a newly built luxury hotel frequently used by foreign embassies for meetings, parties and dinners.
Visiting Westerners often stay or dine there.
Located in downtown Kabul, it is near the presidential palace - but separated from it by fences, blast walls and checkpoints. It is also near several government ministries and a district police station.
Journalist Tor Arne Andreassen of the Aftenpostens told the paper's internet edition he heard a grenade explode.
"Out the window I could see shots being fired at the guard post by the gate," Andreassen said. He said he saw a wounded female hotel employee so badly wounded he did not believe she could have survived.
"The plaster flew around our room and the whole building shook," Andreassen said.
A US citizen who was working out in the hotel's gym said she heard gunfire after the explosion.
She also saw a body she believed to be dead and pools of blood in the lobby area, adding three foreigners had been wounded in the blast.
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