Taliban Claim Responsibility for Bombing at a Kabul Hotel for Foreigners By MUJIB MASHAL in The NY Times, Aug 1, 2016

KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful explosion shook Kabul, the Afghan capital, in the early hours of Monday, and Taliban militants claimed that they had targeted a heavily guarded guesthouse for foreign contractors on the outskirts of the city.
The explosion, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. local time, was so large that residents across Kabul used social media to try to make sense of it. Much of the city briefly lost electricity.
There was no immediate word on casualties among hotel guests and workers from Afghan officials.
In a statement to the news media a little more than an hour after the attack, the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that Taliban fighters had destroyed the security perimeters of the Northgate compound with a suicide attack, using a truck loaded with explosives. A squad of attackers armed with light and heavy weapons stormed the facility after the blast, the Taliban statement said.
More than seven hours after the initial blast and the attack on the compound, afghan officials declared the attack over.
Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said the area of the attack had been cleared. “Three terrorists were among the attackers. One exploded his vest, the other two were killed by police special forces,” Mr. Sediqqi said. “We are now waiting for reports on casualties from the first blast.”
The Northgate operates as a guesthouse for foreign contractors and also contains the offices of security companies.
Afghan security forces immediately closed off streets after the blast and cordoned off an area more than half a mile around the site, which is east of Kabul’s main international airport and near an industrial park.
The bombing occurred a week after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a demonstration by members of Afghanistan’s mainly Shiite Hazara minority, killing at least 80.
A similar attack near the same Northgate compound three years ago, involving five attackers, killed at least four security guards before the militants were gunned down. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/world/asia/kabul-afghanistan-northgate-truck-bomb.html