Kabul hotel attack leaves at least 5 civilians dead

At least five civilians have been killed and six other people have been wounded as an attack on a hotel in Afghanistan’s capital entered its 11^th hour Sunday morning.

The attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul came just days after a U.S. Embassy warning about possible threats to the city’s hotels.

The Intercontinental had been due to host an information technology conference Sunday, with more than 100 IT managers and engineers on site when the attack began, Ahmad Waheed, an official at the telecommunications ministry, told Reuters.

Najib Danish, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said more than 100 people, including at least 16 foreigners, had been rescued -- but their nationalities were not immediately known.

The bodies of at least four attackers were recovered, officials said, with Afghan Special Forces going room by room Sunday to make sure all the gunmen have been accounted for.

The gunmen stormed the hotel Saturday evening, triggering a shootout with security forces, officials said. Danish said the hotel came under attack around 9 p.m.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Several armored U.S. military vehicles with heavy machine guns, as well as Afghan police vehicles, were seen close to the hotel, Reuters reported.

Despite its name, Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel is not part of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the news agency reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.