Guesthouse targeted as multiple explosions rock Kabul

Heavy gunfire and blasts in Afghan capital as a guesthouse hosting foreigners in Wazir Akbar Khan comes under attack.

 

Teams of Afghan security forces have been deployed to the Wazir Akbar Khan area [EPA]

Heavy gunfire and a series of explosions have been heard in the centre of Afghanistan's capital Kabul as a guesthouse hosting foreigners was targeted by unknown attackers.
Teams of Afghan security forces have been deployed to the Wazir Akbar Khan area, an exclusive neighbourhood where many embassies and government buildings are located.
Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said there were reports that the guesthouse, formerly known as the Heetal Hotel, targeted on Tuesday night served as accommodation for foreign contractors.
She quoted police as saying that a suicide bomber detonated a bomb, then gunfire erupted as security forces shot at suspects in a "complex" attack which appeared to involve several targets.
More than a dozen explosions were heard in an hour and heavy gunfire was continuing, reports said.
Most of the blasts sounded like rockets, but several more powerful explosions could have been suicide bombings, an Afghan security source told Reuters news agency.
"We have surrounded the area and cornered them," Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi told the AFP news agency, adding that no casualties have been reported.

"The attackers wanted to get into Heetal Hotel but failed. They have now taken position among the trees behind the hotel and are firing at security forces."
The manager of the guesthouse, owned by the family of Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, said all guests were in safe rooms and no one was hurt.

"Heetal is very well fortified. After one or two initial explosions, our guards started firing on attackers who were unable to get inside," manager Beizhan told AFP by telephone from inside the guesthouse.

"Gunshots and blasts can still be heard from a distance."
Nationwide attacks
Earlier on Tuesday, Taliban fighters attacked a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan, killing 20 security personnel and seizing three army checkpoints.
Glasse said fighting occurred in three areas of Helmand province, with clashes in the districts of Sangin, Musa Qala and Nawzad.
"In Nawzad, the standoff was particularly difficult and went on for hours, with the Taliban taking three army checkpoints and surrounding the district's headquarters," she said.
"At least 20 army and police officers have been killed in that attack and local officials have called for reinforcements."
Thirteen of the victims were police officers and seven were soldiers.
Fighting was also reported in the southern province of Kandahar on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, in the eastern province of Wardak, four suicide bombers attacked a local court, with all four of the assailants reported killed, along with two police officers.
The Taliban has launched a wave of attacks around the country since the withdrawal of foreign troops last year.
The group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Kabul guesthouse earlier this month that left 14 people dead, including nine foreigners.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in the first three months of 2015, civilian casualties from ground fighting increased by eight percent on the same period last year.