Militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday evening, killing at least six people in a coordinated assault rarely seen in the Afghan capital, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said, according to AP. It appeared to be the first direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The 6:12 p.m. assault came on a night the Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting at the Serena Hotel. An American inside said she saw a body she believed to be dead and pools of blood in the lobby. The militants killed six people and wounded six, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. One of the attackers was shot to death and the Taliban spokesman said a second died in the suicide explosion. More than 30 U.S. soldiers in half a dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel. In addition, security personnel from the U.S. Embassy ran through the hotel looking for American citizens caught in the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told The Associated Press that four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel _ one bomber who detonated his explosives and three militants who threw grenades, fired guns and then fled. The claim could not be verified but came very soon after the attack.
