Top Kabul Hotel Under Attack

One of Kabul's top hotels is under siege, reports the BBC. Initial sketchy reports suggest that several gunmen and suicide bombers got into the Inter-Continental Hotel about 10pm local time and were exchanging fire with security forces. No official word yet on casualties amid the chaos, but a US official tells CNN that 10 people are dead. The Taliban has claimed responsibility to the AP. "There was shooting," said one guest who escaped from a first-floor window. "The restaurant was full of guests."

The hotel, nicknamed Inter-Con, was to host a news conference tomorrow to announce details on the country's transition from international to national security forces. The Inter-Con opened in the late 1960s as the country's first luxury hotel. It sits on a hill overlooking Kabul and is popular with Western visitors and top Afghan politicians. (More Kabul stories.)