Early Tuesday morning, Taliban gunmen attacked the Afghanistan presidential palace and surrounding buildings including the CIA's Kabul headquarters, according to Reuters.
After ninety minutes of explosions and gunfire shaking the city centre, all the assailants were killed, Kabul's police chief said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
The spokesman in a text message to Kabul reporters said the militants had "brought death to the enemy" with a suicide attack, according to the Huffington Post.
"Today at 6.30am a number of suicide bombers attacked the presidential palace, defence ministry and the Ariana Hotel," said Zabihullah Mujahid.
President Hamid Karzai was in the palace and an official said he was safe. The actual target of the militants seemed to be the nearby Ariana Hotel, which is known to house the headquarters of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the country.
Not many days ago, a suicide bomber in the capital targeted a prominent Afghan politician who barely escaped the blast. That incident took place hours before NATO formally handed security responsibilities to the Afghan forces.
The Taliban last week announced that they had opened an office in Qatar for peace talks with the U.S., but it seems the group is not yet ready to end its attacks on security targets in the country.
