At least 18 dead in Kabul hotel attack, including 14 foreigners: Official

At least 18 people including 14 foreigners were killed in a bloody Taliban-claimed assault on a luxury hotel in Kabul, an interior ministry spokesman said on Sunday, hours after the overnight attack ended.

“Fourteen foreigners were killed and four Afghans,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told Afghanistan’s Tolo News, without specifying the nationalities involved.

Ukrainian officials have already said at least one Ukrainian is among the dead.

Earlier on Sunday, Taliban claimed responsibility for storming a luxury hotel in Kabul in the 12-hour overnight siege.

The attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital "killed tens of foreign invaders and their puppets", spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in an emailed message. Officials have said one foreigner was among the six killed.

Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who escaped unhurt, said the attackers had got into the main part of the hotel through a kitchen and people tried to get out amid bursts of gunfire.

A security personnel points his weapon near the Intercontinental Hotel after a deadly attack in Kabul. (AP)

Officials said there were as many as four attackers and at least two of them had been killed as Afghan Special Forces cleared the first floor and moved to the second, battling the raiders, who appeared to have a large supply of hand grenades.

(Reuters and AFP)