At Least 6 Slain in Afghan Attack

KABUL, Afghanistan — Militants with suicide vests, grenades, and AK–47 rifles attacked a luxury hotel yesterday, killing at least six people in a brazen attack on Western civilians in Kabul, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said.

Secretary-General Ban of the United Nations said the Norwegian foreign minister, who was not hurt, was the target of the assault, which came as the Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting at the Serena Hotel. Two State Department officials said at least one American was among the dead. A Norwegian journalist also died.

It was the deadliest assault on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The assailants appeared to concentrate on the hotel's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out. An American inside said she saw a dead body and pools of blood in the lobby.

The militants killed six people and wounded six, an Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, said.

He spoke before news of the Norwegian journalist's death, and it was not clear whether he was counted among the six dead.

One of the attackers was shot to death and the Taliban spokesman said a second died in the suicide explosion.

More than 30 American soldiers in a half dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel, and security personnel from the American Embassy raced through the building searching for Americans.

Suzanne Griffin, a Seattle resident who works with the aid agency Save the Children, said she was in the gym's locker room when the attack started.

"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Mr. Griffin said, her voice shaking.