January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

KABUL, Jan 14: Gunmen launched a brazen attack on the main luxury hotel in Kabul on Monday, killing four people and wounding six as the Norwegian foreign minister was inside, officials said.

The hardline Taliban movement said its men, including a suicide bomber, carried out the attack on the Kabul Serena, a five-star hotel frequented by foreigners, several of whom live there.

“First there was a suicide attack at the entrance of the hotel followed by a second explosion... Then there was gun fire. Four people have been killed and six are wounded,” interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

He was not able to say if the second blast was also a suicide bombing, or who had been killed, except that they were not high profile.

A western official said one of the dead was an Afghan hostess who had been shot.

A hotel employee confirmed to AFP Norwegian media reports that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was in the hotel at the time of the attack but was safe and sheltering with several other people in the basement.

“Everybody (in the basement) is safe and sound,” he said. The Norwegian embassy in Kabul referred media queries to Oslo.

A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, Captain Mario Renna, said first reports were that three people had attacked the hotel.

“One has been killed by guards of the hotel but two others managed to get inside and they managed to kill one guard and wound two others, one of them seriously.” He had no details on the fate of the other two attackers.

Foreign soldiers had searched every room to look for the remaining men, the western official.

Another ISAF spokesman, Major Charles Anthony, said two people wounded in the attack had been evacuated to one of the force's medical facilities but their condition was unknown.

Another western security official said the Norwegian minister had been due to have a dinner meeting in the hotel on Monday evening with donors and non-government organisations.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said the insurgent group was responsible.

“Four members of the Taliban, one of them wearing a suicide vest and all armed with Kalashnikovs (rifles), entered the Serena hotel and opened fire on foreigners,” Mujahed said.“One of them exploded himself,” he said, adding the others were in a “safe place.”—AFP