The Taleban claimed responsibility, saying five suicide bombers conducted the early morning attacks on two buildings used by foreign citizens, while police said the attackers numbered at least three. Police said Indians were among those killed.
Dr. Surbod Sanjiv Paul of India stayed holed up in his bathroom for three hours inside one of the guest houses when it came under attack.
"When I was coming out, I found two or three dead bodies," Paul said later at a military hospital, where his wounded foot was bandaged. "When firing was going on, the first car bomb exploded and the full roof came on my head." The attacks in Kabul came as thousands of US, Afghan and NATO soldiers were in their second week of a major offensive against a Taleban stronghold in the town of Marjah in Helmand province. In recent weeks, more than two dozen senior and midlevel Taleban figures have been detained in Pakistan in recent weeks, suggesting that the attack in the capital could be a way for the militants to show that the insurgency remains potent.
