Gun battle at Kabul hotel popular with westerners

Gunmen opened fire in a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners in the Afghan capital today, but no guests or staff members were wounded and security forces surrounded the men, killing three and trapping a fourth, officials said.

The stand-off began tonight and bursts of gunfire could be heard from inside the Serena hotel as Afghan troops cordoned off the area.

A hotel worker named Gulam Ali told his brother over his mobile phone that all the guests and staff members had taken refuge in the basement.

“Everybody’s fine,” he told his brother Mohammed Nabil in a call made with reporters present.

“Foreigners, workers, everybody is in the basement. A quick-reaction unit from the police entered the Serena and the hotel is surrounded.”

A senior intelligence official said the gunmen sneaked pistols into the heavily guarded hotel by hiding them in their socks.

General Mohammad Ayub Salangi said three of the gunmen had been killed and another was trapped in a bathroom by security forces.

The Serena is considered one of the safest places to stay in Kabul. To enter the hotel, guests must pass through an exterior gate and are searched at a checkpoint with a metal detector.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban militants have threatened to disrupt upcoming elections, and many observers are staying at the hotel.