Militants storm Afghan hotel, take dozens hostage Updated 2:21 a.m. (AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - Three suicide bombers attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul, taking hostages and staging an hours-long gunbattle with Afghan security forces, police said Friday. The bombers, armed with machines guns, rocket-propelled grenades and vests laden with explosives, attacked the Spozhmai hotel at Qargha Lake around 11 p.m. Thursday night and fighting continued Friday morning, said Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police. Officials tell CBS News that 36 hostages had been freed, including four women, one of whom was wounded. A spokesman at the Afghan Ministry of Interior tells CBS News' Mukhtar Ahmad that no foreigners were believed to be inside the hotel, but the number of Afghan nationals still being held in the building was unclear. Ahmad reports ongoing heavy gunfire and sporadic explosions coming from the hotel. Two American military helicopters could be seen flying overhead. There were unconfirmed reports that as many as six civilians had been killed in the attack. Gen. Kadam Shah Shayem, a commander with the Afghan National Army in Kabul, said two of the attackers were dead. Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi said at least one policeman was also killed in the attack. Four guests jumped out of a window at the two-story hotel and crouched in the lake to hide from the attackers, Shayem said. "Our forces have surrounded the area," Shayem said. There is still shooting. We are being very careful because there still are people - civilians - inside the hotel. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said they attacked the hotel because foreigners there were drinking and participating in other activities banned by Islam. The U.S.-led coalition was supporting Afghan security forces who responded to the attack, the coalition said. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said coalition helicopters were circling over the site.