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Taleban teens kill nine people in Kabul hotel shooting

Taleban gunmen killed nine people, including four foreigners, in an attack on a luxury hotel used by UN staff and prominent Afghan politicians in Kabul on Thursday night, before being shot dead by security forces, witnesses and police said on Friday.

The assault on the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, which lasted some three hours, was the latest in a string of attacks by the insurgents.

French news agency AFP said its Afghan reporter Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two young children were killed in the attack. The foreigners killed were from Canada, India, New Zealand and Pakistan, the Interior Ministry said.

All the 18 UN staff members known to be inside had been accounted for, according to a UN official.

Four Taleban teenagers sneaked past security early on Thursday evening and hid inside the building for three hours before opening fire on diners inside the hotel’s restaurant, according to interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.