Suicide Attack on Afghan Hotel Leaves 8 Dead

TEHRAN (FNA)- A huge suicide attack on Kabul's Inter-Continental hotel killed at least 8 people, 2 of them police officers, and damaged the building.
"Six suicide bombers have attacked the hotel and two of them managed to blast their suicide belts and the other four were killed by police gunshots," Afghanistan's Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqi told FNA on Wednesday.

Sediqi said that all those killed in the attack were Afghans, but earlier media reports had described the victims as foreign nationals.

He announced that eight other people have also been wounded during the attacks.

Taliban has claimed the responsibility for the terrorist attack and said its fighter have killed a large number of foreign nationals during the suicide blasts.

The Inter-Continental - known widely as the "Inter-Con" - was once part of an international chain. But when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the hotel was left to fend for itself.

The hotel, used by Western journalists during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, had also been targeted before.

On Nov 23, 2003, a rocket exploded nearby, shattering windows but causing no casualties.