Suicide bombers strike Kabul; 17 dead

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul.

India's foreign minister said up to nine Indians were killed, including government officials. An Italian diplomat and a French national were also among the dead.

The four-hour assault began about 6:30 a.m. with a car bombing that leveled a residential hotel used by Indian doctors. A series of explosions and gunbattles left blood and debris in the rain-slickened streets and underscored the militants' ability to strike in the heavily defended capital even as NATO marshals its forces against them in the volatile south.

Dr. Subodh Sanjivpaul of India said he was holed up in his bathroom for three hours inside one of the small hotels where he lived with other Indians.

“Today's suicide attack took place in our residential complex,” Sanjivpaul said at a military hospital where his wounded foot was bandaged. “When I was coming out, I found two or three dead bodies. When firing was going on, the first car bomb exploded and the full roof came on my head.”

The Kabul attacks came two weeks into a major offensive against the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, where thousands of U.S., Afghan and NATO soldiers are battling to drive insurgents out. The British government said one of its soldiers was killed Friday by an explosion while on a foot patrol -- the 14th international service member to die in the operation.

In recent weeks, more than two dozen senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been detained in Pakistan, suggesting the attack in the capital could be a way for the militants to show the insurgency remains potent.

In a statement, Karzai condemned Friday's assault as a “terrorist attack against Indian citizens” who were helping the Afghan people. He said it would not affect relations between India and Afghanistan.

Indian officials also condemned the attack.

“We are shocked at the inhuman attack on innocent lives,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

“Our ties are strong and deep (with Afghanistan) and will remain so. We are very clear that the forces of terrorism will not succeed and we will take every measure to defeat the forces of terror,” he said in New Delhi.

Three police were killed in the attacks, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said, adding that at least 38 people were wounded, six of them police.

Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahman told reporters that the attacks began when a car bomb exploded outside the Arya Guesthouse where Indian doctors, who treat Afghan children in the area, were living.

The blast leveled the building, also known as the Hamid Guesthouse. After the car bombing, a suicide attacker detonated his vest of explosives outside the demolished building.

Two other attackers then entered a second hotel known as Park Residence. Police surrounded the building. One of them holed himself up in a room and then blew himself up, killing three police officers and wounding six others. The other attacker was shot dead by police. The Italian diplomat who died had been assisting the police.

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