11:30/28:10:2009

A Taliban attack on a UN guest house in downtown Kabul on Wednesday morning killed six international United Nations staff and wounded nine others, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.

To a question that if a high level UN official was among the dead, McNorton said all the UN staff were equally important to them. However, he would not say about the nationalities of the dead and wounded.

The 5am attack on the Bakhtar Guest House, in the Shar-i-Naw neighborhood of central Kabul , was unprecedented. UN buildings have strict regulations regarding security, including armed guards and blast-proof gates.

The street where the house is located has been cordoned off.

Earlier, Ministry of Interior spokesman Zamary Bashari said three armed men with grenades and suicide vests entered the guest house and the shootout ended at 8:30 am when three suicide attackers were killed by anti-terrorism forces. He said four UNAMA foreign staffers were killed and seven others wounded. Earlier, an eyewitness had told Pajhwok Afghan News that he saw a dead body of an intelligence officer and three wounded police in front of the guest house. He said firing could be heard for two hours inside the guest house.

Taliban accepted the responsibility for the attack. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman of Taliban, did not give details about casualties, but confirmed that the attack has been carried out by their armed men on UN.