foreigners, said all the guests were in safe rooms and no one was hurt.
“Heetal is very well fortified. After one or two initial explosions, our guards started firing on attackers who were unable to get inside,” manager Beizhan told AFP by telephone from inside the guesthouse.
The Heetal was damaged in 2009 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the gate, killing eight people and wounding another 40. The latest attack comes two weeks after 14 people — mostly foreigners — were killed in a Taliban attack on Kabul´s Park Palace guesthouse that trapped dozens attending a concert.
The militants have launched a series of attacks in the capital and around the country as NATO forces have pulled back from frontlines. The Taliban, who have been waging a 13-year war against the US-backed Afghan government, killed 26 Afghan police in multiple attacks in the volatile south a day earlier. And a blast triggered by a Taliban car bomber ripped through the parking lot of the justice ministry in Kabul on May 19, killing four people and wounding dozens of others.
Official efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table have so far borne little fruit. The surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan. In the first four months of 2015, civilian casualties jumped 16 percent from the same period last year, it said.
Ghani last Thursday nominated Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top official in the government body overseeing the country’s peace process, for the job. The post had been left vacant for months due to disagreements between Ghani and his chief executive officer and former presidential election rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Afghan forces are now solely responsible for security after Nato’s combat mission formally ended in December, with a small follow-up force staying on to train and support local personnel. Earlier this month Nato formally announced plans to retain a small military presence in Afghanistan after 2016 to help strengthen local security forces.