At least 5 people killed by gunmen during five-hour attack in Kabul

Police outside the Kabul guest house where an American was killed Wednesday. — (Image credit: Twitter.com/ChicagoTribune)

Five people, including an American and two Indian citizens, were killed by gunmen in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday after they forced their way into a guest house, police said.

The Park Palace guest house in the Kolola Pushta area is popular with foreigners, Reuters reports, and a concert was scheduled there later in the evening. Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of the Afghan National Army's 111th Corps, told Reuters that "fortunately, most guests had not arrived yet" when the attack started. He said that Afghan police, army, and special forces rescued at least 16 people from the guest house during the attack that lasted five hours, and witnesses told police they believed as many as 100 people were inside.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed the death of at least one American, but would not give any other details. Earlier in the day, gunmen killed at least seven people during a meeting of Muslim clerics in Helmand province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.