Nato kills three rebels after hotel raid leaves ten dead

At least ten people were thought to have died after five bombers entered the Intercontinental Hotel and blew themselves up.

Afghan officials said the insurgents were armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades.

Witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of the five-hour long raid, during which the hotel was plunged into darkness.

A meeting of political governors was taking place in the hotel at the time.

One intelligence official said: "Most of these VIPs were in a car park when the three suicide attackers arrived and started firing their weapons.

"The bodyguards for some of the governors exchanged gunfire with the attackers. The attackers had hand-grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s."

The attack also came the night before the start of a conference about the gradual transition of responsibility for security from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to Afghan security forces.

Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed several fighters from the group had attacked the hotel.

Reporters at the scene said the two sides fought with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. They saw tracer rounds go up over the blacked-out hotel, which is regularly frequented by Afghan political leaders and foreign visitors. They also saw shooting from the roof of the five-storey building.

Police had ordered bystanders to lie on the ground for safety.

Some bullets were said to have landed close to the house of Afghanistan's vice-president, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who was evacuated.

A police source said that a wedding party was under way when the attack happened at the hotel, which is built on a hillside in western Kabul.

Police threw up roadblocks immediately after the blast, stopping people from approaching the area. Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taleban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May, although Kabul has been relatively quiet.

The last major attack on a similar hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taleban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style attack on the nearby Serena hotel.

The Serena has been hit in several random rocket attacks since then.The increase in violence comes as Nato-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility back to Afghans in seven areas from next month, at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving the country by the end of 2014.

The United States last night condemned the attack, saying it demonstrated "the terrorists' complete disregard for human life".

One guest at the hotel told how the attack began when many people were having dinner in the restaurant, and that he had jumped out of a first-floor window to escape the gunmen.

"I was running with my family," said the man, who asked not to be named.

"There was shooting. The restaurant was filled with guests."