KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) — Afghan Taliban gunmen, some armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, attacked a popular lakeside hotel on the outskirts of Kabul’s early Friday, seizing hostages and setting off a gun battle with hotel security guards in which an unknown number of people were killed, the Afghan police said.


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The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began in the post-midnight darkness inside the Spozhmai Hotel. The Taliban said wealthy Afghans and foreigners used the hotel to have “wild parties” in the hours before the start of the Friday religious holiday.
The hotel, about six miles from the center of Kabul in the popular Qargha Lake recreation area, is one of the capital’s few alternatives for weekend getaways. Restaurants and hotels that dot the lakefront are popular with Afghan government officials and businessmen, particularly on Thursday nights.
Police said they were reluctant to storm the hotel because an unknown number of families were trapped inside. “It would be very easy for police to kill them, but we are afraid because there are civilians, including women and children, trapped,” said Gen. Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police investigation unit. “We are waiting for daylight.”
Attacks across Afghanistan have surged in recent days, with three United States soldiers and more than a dozen civilians killed in successive attacks, mostly in eastern Afghanistan, which has so far been a focus for NATO-led forces during the summer fighting months.
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said in a speech to a special session of Parliament on Thursday that attacks by insurgents against local police and soldiers were increasing as foreign combat troops prepared to leave the country in 2014.