A NATO helicopter flies above the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul June 29, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

In the early hours of Wednesday, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard during the late-night attack.

Some insurgents were shot dead by police while others blew themselves up.  

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters  from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an  undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then  three more at least an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky over the hotel.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

The roof of the Intercontinental hotel is lit up by an explosion during a battle between NATO-led forces and suicide bombers and Taliban insurgents in Kabul June 29, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with heavy fortifications all around it, is often used for conferences and by Westerners visiting the city.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of  May.

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

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition process was due to begin in a government building in the centre of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 was already at its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.