KABUL, Afghanistan - Four gunmen with pistols stuffed into their socks attacked a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners in Afghanistan’s capital Thursday, just hours after militants killed 11 people in an assault on a police station in eastern Afghanistan.
The hotel attack began about 6 p.m. Kabul time, and bursts of gunfire could be heard from inside the Serena Hotel as Afghan troops cordoned off the area.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its fighters targeted foreigners and dignitaries gathered at the hotel for a celebration marking the Persian new year, Nowruz.
Gulam Ali, a hotel worker, told his brother over his cellphone that all the guests and staff members had taken refuge in the basement.
“Everybody’s fine,” he told his brother, Mohammed Nabil, who let an Associated Press reporter listen to the conversation. “Foreigners, workers, everybody is in the basement. A quick-reaction unit from the police entered the Serena and the hotel is surrounded.”
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi described the attackers as young men who appeared to be about 18 years old and said all had been killed. The gunmen sneaked pistols into the heavily guarded hotel by hiding them in their socks and saying they were going to dinner at the hotel, he said, adding that two hotel security guards were wounded.
Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said earlier that one of the gunmen had been trapped in a bathroom by security forces.
The Serena is considered one of the safest places to stay in Kabul. To enterthe hotel, guests must pass through an exterior gate and are searched at a checkpoint with a metal detector.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a large number of fighters attacked the hotel and were fighting with police.
“This attack shows that our people, if they decide to attack any place they can do it,” he said in an email to journalists.
The Taliban have threatened a campaign of violence to disrupt next month’s elections.
Earlier Thursday, gunfire rattled through the streets of Jalalabad and smoke billowed into the sky while Afghan troops fought Taliban militants after an assault against a police station that killed 10 officers and a university student.
The assault began before dawn when a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car outside the police station,which is near the palatial residence of the governor of Nangarhar province, Attaullah Ludin.
Six gunmen then rushed into the station as two more bombs exploded nearby - one hidden in a motorized rickshaw, and another in a vegetable cart.
That prompted a fierce battle that lasted more than four hours, with Afghan police and soldiers chasing gunmen down the street. All seven attackers were killed, Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said.
Police said the 11 killed included a city district police chief and a university student caught in the crossfire.
The Interior Ministry said 15 policemen also were wounded in the attack, which it said was aimed at sabotaging the coming elections.
Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault, saying the Taliban attackers woresuicide vests and that nearly 30 policemen were killed. The Islamic militant group frequently exaggerates casualty figures.
The Taliban have carried out numerous attacks in Jalalabad, Kabul and elsewhere in the east. But their choice of targets Thursday reflected an effort to show they can still penetrate heavily secured areas despite numerous U.S. and Afghan offensives against them in recent years.
The April elections include ballots for provincial elections, but the most closely watched is the presidential race. President Hamid Karzai’s successor will guide the country for the next five years as most U.S. and allied forces leave the country by the end of 2014.
As part of the withdrawal process, Afghan authorities Thursday released more than 70 prisoners who had been held by foreign troops, including some 40 who hadbeen detained by British forces in southern Helmand province, officials said.
The freeing of prisoners detained by international troops from the Parwan Detention Center has strained relations between Washington and Karzai, particularly in the wake of the Afghan leader’s increasingly anti-American rhetoric and refusal to sign a long-negotiated bilateral security deal that would allow thousands of American and allied troops to stay in the country beyond the end of a 2014 deadline to leave.
The U.S. military has said some of those set free were directly linked to attacks that have killed or wounded dozens of U.S. or coalition personnel, as well as Afghan security forces and civilians.
Information for this article was contributed by Rahmat Gul and Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 03/21/2014