Twenty-One Dead After Kabul Hotel Battle

NATO and Afghan forces repel a Taliban attack on a high-end hotel overlooking Kabul.

The late-night assault on a Kabul hotel ended with 21 people dead, nine of whom were insurgents who launched the attack. The Taliban attacked the Intercontinental Hotel, a hotel popular with western officials, with at least two suicide bombers and a slew of fighters carrying rocket launchers and rifles. The Taliban said it had hoped to kill military and diplomatic officials staying at the hotel, although it's not yet clear if anyone besides Taliban fighters and Afghan police died in the clash. By dawn, the fighting had been quelled by both NATO and Afghan forces, but the brazenness of the attack is sure to raise fears about the level of security in the Afghan capital as foreign forces begin withdrawing this summer.