KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen in army uniforms who stormed Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel late on Saturday and battled Afghan Special Forces through the night killed more than 30 people and wounded many more, although the final toll of dead and wounded may still be higher. 
 
 Wahid Majroh, a spokesman for the ministry of public health, said that 19 bodies had been brought into city hospitals, with six identified as foreigners. 
 
 However a senior Afghan security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the death toll was over 30 and might climb higher. The dead included hotel staff and guests as well as members of the security forces who fought the attackers. 
 
 All five attackers were also killed, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said. 
 
 In Kiev, Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Twitter that six Ukrainians were killed in the attack. 
 
 The raid was the latest in a series of attacks that have underlined the city’s vulnerability and the ability of militants to mount high-profile operations aimed at undermining confidence in the Western-backed government. 
 
 More than 150 guests were able to flee as parts of the building caught fire, with some shimmying down sheets tied together and dropped from upper-floor windows and others rescued by Afghan forces. 
 
 Local airline Kam Air said around 40 of its pilots and air crew, many of whom are foreigners, were staying in the hotel and as many as 10 had been killed. Local media reports said the dead included Venezuelans and Ukrainians. 
 
 Zamari Kamgar, the airline’s deputy director, said it was still trying to locate staff. 
 
 The Taliban, which attacked the same hotel in 2011, claimed responsibility for the attack, its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. 
 
 A statement from the interior ministry put the blame on the Haqqani network, a group affiliated with the Taliban that is notorious for its attacks on urban targets. 
 
 Abdul Rahman Naseri, a guest who was at the hotel for a conference, was in the hall of the hotel when he saw four gunmen dressed in army uniforms. 
 
 “They were shouting in Pashto (language), ‘Don’t leave any of them alive, good or bad’. ‘Shoot and kill them all,’ one of them shouted,” Naseri said. 
 
 “I ran to my room on the second floor. I opened the window and tried to get out using a tree but the branch broke and I fell to the ground. I hurt my back and broke a leg.” 
 
 Even after officials said the attack was over, sporadic gunshots and explosions could be heard from the site. 
 
 THICK SMOKE 
 
 As day broke on Sunday, thick clouds of black smoke poured from the building, an imposing 1960s structure set on a hilltop and heavily protected like most public buildings in Kabul. 
 
 The Intercontinental is one of two main luxury hotels in the city and had been due to host an information technology conference on Sunday. More than 100 IT managers and engineers were on site when the attack took place, said Ahmad Waheed, an official at the telecommunications ministry. 
 
 Afghan security forces stand on the roof top of the Intercontinental Hotel a day after an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani 
 
 Danesh said a private company had taken over responsibility for security at the hotel three weeks ago and there would be an investigation into possible failings, just days after a U.S. embassy warning of possible attacks on hotels in Kabul. 
 
 Several armored U.S. military vehicles with heavy machine guns could be seen close to the hotel along with Afghan police units as Special Forces maneuvered around the site. 
 
 Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who escaped unhurt, said the attackers had got into the main part of the hotel through a kitchen before going through the hotel, with many guests trapped in their rooms. 
 
 The senior security official said that the attackers had moved directly from the first floor to the fourth and fifth floors, suggesting the attack had been carefully prepared, possibly with inside help. 
 
 “When the sixth floor caught fire this morning, my roommate told me, either burn or escape,” said Mohammad Musa, who was hiding in his room on the top floor. 
 
 “I got a bed sheet and tied it to the balcony. I tried to come down but I was heavy and my arms were not strong enough. I fell down and injured my shoulder and leg.” 
 
 U.S. WARNING 
 
 Although U.S. and Afghan officials say the Taliban has been forced onto the back foot after the United States increased its help to Afghan security forces and stepped up air strikes last year, security remains precarious across the country. 
 
 In separate incidents on Sunday, eight people were killed by a roadside bomb in the western province of Herat and 18 members of local militia forces were killed at a checkpoint in the northern province of Balkh. 
 
 As pressure on the battlefield has increased, officials have warned that the danger of attacks on high-profile targets in Kabul and other cities would increase. The insurgents have carried out dozens of such attacks over recent years. 
 
 After repeated strikes on Kabul, notably last May when a truck bomber killed at least 150 people outside the German embassy, security has been further tightened. 
 
 Large areas of central Kabul are already closed off behind high concrete blast walls and police checkpoints but the ability of the assailants to get into a well-protected hotel frequented by both government officials and foreigners demonstrated how difficult it remains to stop them. 
 
 The attack, just days after a U.N. Security Council visit to Kabul to allow senior representatives of member states to assess the situation in Afghanistan, may further weaken confidence in the government. 
 
 President Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation and said militant groups were being helped by neighboring countries. 
 
 “As long as the terrorist groups have secure protection and safe haven, the region will not find security, stability,” he said in a statement. 
 
 U.S. ambassador John Bass said the embassy was in close contact with Afghan authorities. 
 
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 “Such violence has no place here or anywhere in the world,” he said in a statement. ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Afghan security forces have taken up positions around the hotel 
 
 At least four gunmen have launched an attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, Afghan officials say. 
 
 Special forces killed two of the attackers, an interior ministry spokesman said, and are trying to get to the others. 
 
 The gunmen stormed the hotel on Saturday evening, shooting at guests and detonating grenades. 
 
 At least five people have been injured, officials said. It is not clear how many have been killed. 
 
 The attack began at about 21:00 local time (16:30 GMT), with reports suggesting the gunmen shot at security guards as they made their way into the five-storey building. 
 
 They targeted staff and guests before special forces were called in. 
 
 Security forces then cleared the ground floor of the luxury hotel but the attackers are still on the floors above, spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told the BBC. 
 
 Some reports said the hotel had been hosting an IT conference attended by provincial officials at the time. One witness told Reuters news agency that the attackers had taken hostages. 
 
 The attack comes just days after the US embassy in Kabul issued a warning about hotels in the city. 
 
 "We are aware of reports that extremist groups may be planning an attack against hotels in Kabul," the embassy wrote in a public security alert published Thursday, though it highlighted another hotel near the international airport as a possible target. 
 
 "These groups may also be targeting public gatherings/demonstrations, government facilities, transportation, markets, and places where foreigners are known to congregate." 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption File photo: The Intercontinental Hotel, photographed in January 2016 
 
 A guest at the hotel told AFP news agency that people were hiding in their rooms. 
 
 "I don't know if the attackers are inside the hotel but I can hear gunfire," the guest said. 
 
 "I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us." 
 
 Another interior ministry spokesman told AFP an investigation had already begun into how the attackers had breached security, which was handed over to a private company two weeks ago. 
 
 "They probably used a back door in the kitchen to enter," he said. 
 
 The Intercontinental is a state-owned hotel which often hosts weddings, conferences and political gatherings. 
 
 It was attacked by the Taliban in 2011. Twenty-one people were killed including nine attackers. 
 
 Security has been tightened in Kabul since last May, when a huge truck bomb killed at least 150 people. 
 
 However, there have been several attacks in recent months. They include a bomb at a Shia cultural centre last month that killed more than 40 people.
– Guests were forced to flee as gunmen stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and opened fire Saturday night, the BBC reports. Najib Danish, spokesperson for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, tells Reuters the approximately four attackers also included suicide bombers. Afghan Special Forces responded to the attack and killed at least two gunmen, Danish says. An official with Afghanistan's spy agency says the gunmen were "shooting at guests." "We are hiding in our rooms," one guest is quoted as saying. "I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us." There are reports the Intercontinental Hotel, one of two major luxury hotels in Kabul, was hosting an IT conference at the time of the attack. There has as yet been no word on possible casualties. The AP reports no group is claiming responsibility for the attack on the hotel so far, though the Taliban previously attacked the hotel in 2011. The attack comes just two days after a warning from the US embassy in Kabul that the city's hotels could be targeted. "We are aware of reports that extremist groups may be planning an attack against hotels in Kabul," the embassy said in statement Thursday.