Suicide Attack on Afghan Luxury Hotel Kills Six

Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was staying at the hotel but was said to be safe

A suspected Taliban suicide attack killed six people on Monday at a luxury hotel in Kabul where the Norwegian foreign minister was staying, Afghan officials said.

Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was unhurt in the attack at the five-star Serena Hotel in central Kabul and sheltered with other guests in the basement, Norway's public broadcaster NRK said.

Six people, most of them security guards, were killed in the attack and six were wounded, an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The attack started with a suicide bomb at the heavily guarded gate of the hotel which is surrounded by high walls, he said.

"After the suicide bombing, there was another explosion which we are not sure ... whether it was a suicide attack or it was a bomb," Interior Minister Zemarai Bashary told a news conference.

Then, he said, there was some shooting. "We are uncertain about the shootings as well; whether it was by the security guards of the hotel or by the enemies," Bashary said.

Police had earlier said up to four attackers had thrown hand-grenades at the gates, then shot their way into the compound and at some time set off a suicide bomb.

Norway's Stoere was safe and had been taken to a secure location, the foreign ministry in Oslo said in a statement.

A Norwegian Foreign Ministry employee and a Norwegian journalist were among the injured and had been taken to hospital, the ministry said. Norwegian television stations said the injured journalist worked for the daily newspaper Dagbladet.

"The national intelligence service has taken responsibility for the investigation," said an Afghan police official who declined to be named. "There was gunfire inside and outside the hotel, plus a suicide attack ... it is very complicated at this time."

The hotel is mainly frequented by foreigners.

The hardline Islamist Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban militants carried out more than 140 suicide attacks in 2007 in their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and expel foreign forces.

Norway has about 500 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led international force sent there after U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001.

U.S. troops cordoned off the roads around the Serena Hotel, completed in 2006 at a cost of $35 million, partly funded by the Aga Khan Foundation.