Taliban insurgents attack Kabul hotel KABUL - Qargah Lake is a scenic oasis of calm in Afghanistan's dusty, traffic-choked capital. Weekenders putter around on paddleboats and dine in shoreside restaurants under a ring of mountain peaks. On Thursday night, a team of Taliban suicide bombers broke the revery, storming one of the lakeside hotels while dozens of guests relaxed inside and setting off an hours-long hostage crisis and gunbattle with Afghan troops. The surprise attack, the first in Kabul in a couple months, turned the Spozmay Hotel into a scene of chaos. The fighting killed at least three security guards, one policemen, and one man who apparently drowned while trying to swim to safety, according to Afghan police and intelligence officials. The attack, which follows closely on several Taliban assaults in other cities, suggested the insurgent groups are attempting to intensify their annual summer offensive. One guest at the Spozmay Hotel, Basir Agha, said he'd come to the restaurant with a group of friends, as it is "the only place we can enjoy ourselves and find some entertainment." He estimated that there were dozens of guests in the restaurant when the attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikovs, and explosive vests burst into the hotel, killing the proprietor's brother to mark the start of their siege. "They were just shooting everywhere," Agha said by cell phone from inside the hotel on Friday morning, as police were still attempting to rescue the hostages. Over the course of the morning bursts of gunfire and grenade explosions could be heard emanating from the area near the hotel. Afghan police and NATO's armored trucks had blocked off access to the lake. The Norwegian special forces, which act as a quick reaction force for incidents in Kabul, were also on scene. "There has been serious fighting going on all night, I couldn't sleep at all," said Asadullah Shinwari, a 24-year-old kebab vendor who lives near the lake. A few guests jumped out of windows to escape the fighting, according to witnesses. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack. They said in a statement that they targeted the hotel because foreigners came there for drinking and prostitution. Two guests at the hotel said they hadn't noticed any foreigners present in the hours before the attack.