Four Taliban troops armed with assault rifles and a grenade launcher stormed a guesthouse in the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital overnight and held out for hours until they were killed by government forces early on Wednesday, officials said.
No casualties other than the attackers were reported, Afghanistan’s Deputy Interior Minister General Ayoub Salangi said. Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, said the guesthouse was owned by a prominent Afghan political family that includes Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, World Bulletin reported.
The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack after it ended and said numerous “invaders” had been killed, although it often makes exaggerated claims about casualties in attacks against Afghan government and foreign targets.
Salangi said at least one rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three AK-47 assault rifles were seized after the attack in the heavily guarded Wazir Akbar Khan district had ended.
The recent escalation in high-profile Kabul attacks started two weeks ago, when the Taliban attacked the Park Palace hotel in Kabul and killed more than a dozen people. Most of the casualties were Afghan civilians, although an American, a British-Afghan national, four Indians, an Italian and a Kazakh were also among the dead.
