Four Taliban gunmen killed after Kabul attack

According to international media four gunmen were killed after trying to storm a guesthouse in a diplomatic area of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Police report that the attack resulted in an overnight gun battle in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to several embassies and official buildings.

The Taliban says it launched the attack, which lasted at least six hours.

The interior ministry said that the assailants were armed with a rocket propelled grenade launcher and other weapons, but no civilian or military casualties were reported.

"Four attackers who had one RPG launcher, three AK-47s and one grenade launcher were killed in Wazir Akbar Khan," deputy interior minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said on Twitter.

The BBC reports Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi saying that the four gunmen were killed before reaching their target.

Afghanistan's interior said that the target was the former Heetal guesthouse, attacked by the Taliban in 2009 and now officially known as the Rabbani Guesthouse. The house is popular with foreigners and is owned by the Rabbani family, including Afghanistan's current Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, and its former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Earlier, Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said the attackers had taken position among the trees behind the guesthouse.

The AFP news agency reports that all guests were in safe rooms and that no-one was hurt during the attack.

Correspondents say that the attackers appear to have tried to enter the hotel by firing a rocket propelled grenade at its heavy steel front gate, which was partly destroyed but not damaged enough for the militants to get through.

Officials said that the siege dragged on because police waited until daylight to identify and move in on their targets and security forces blocked roads and took up positions on rooftops, parking armoured personnel vehicles in the streets near the guesthouse. According to reports, the stand-off ended with a round of sustained gunfire and big explosions that sent clouds of black smoke into the sky. The attack began shortly before 23:00  and the police were later seen smashing street lights to cover their movements in the dark.