A crew of suicide bombers attacked a central commercial area dotted with guesthouses frequented by foreigners, setting off an hours-long gun battle with Afghan police early Friday and killing at least 17 people. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the dramatic raid, which began around daybreak and wounded at least 32 people. The assault was the latest in a string of attacks to rock the capital city, whose residents generally feel a world away from the raging rural insurgency that U.S.-led forces are seeking to contain in a new push in southern Afghanistan. The attack began with a car bombing that left a swimming pool-sized crater outside a small hotel, where most guests were Indian, said Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada, head of criminal investigations for the city police. Three suicide bombers then entered another nearby guesthouse, the Park Residence, which is often used by Americans. There, two bombers detonated their explosives, while a third holed up as green- uniformed Afghan security forces descended and a firefight ensued. The final bomber was killed by police about four hours after the attack began, authorities said. After the standoff ended, police carried out bodies swathed in floral blankets from the Park Residence, their boots crunching layers of shattered window glass that lay underfoot. At least three police officers were killed, Zada said. Among the dead civilians were Italians and several Indians, he said. Friday's attack further eroded the sense of security in the capital, challenging the government of President Hamid Karzai. It came about five weeks after a similar commando-style assault on a shopping center near the presidential palace and a large hotel. 'If we have security, why do we have this kind of drama?' asked Ahmad Haji Zada, 22, who came to survey the damage to his mangled building-parts store, about a block from the hotels. 'How is it possible for them to get into the city?' In the surrounding area, the bombs had laid waste to signs of peaceful pursuits in the long-embattled city. A microfinance bank was partially crumbled. Layered wedding cakes were jumbled inside a glass case in a bakery, their vibrant flowers smashed and blurred. As Zada spoke, a sporadic firefight was still in progress inside the Park Residence, and occasional booms shook the ground. Police helicopters hovered overhead, surveying what was, even at the height of the gun battles, a fairly calm scene. It was Friday morning, the beginning of the Afghan weekend, and the streets were mostly empty. 'The sound was a very, very terrible sound,' said an employee of a nearby cellphone company, pointing up at the empty window panes of his office. He said he and two Pakistani guests, who had spent the night at the office, were spared injury from flying glass because they were sleeping under heavy blankets. Despite the Taliban claim of responsibility, the timing of the attack {ndash} when few passersby were present {ndash} sparked speculation among witnesses and authorities at the bomb site. One Afghan intelligence officer at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one of the bombers entered the first guesthouse after the car bomb exploded outside and shot two Indian guests. The intelligence officer blamed today's attack on Pakistan's intelligence agency, which U.S. officials have accused of collaborating with Afghan militants in a 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul. India is Pakistan's archenemy, and Pakistan strongly opposes its rising influence in Afghanistan. Many witnesses, however, simply seemed bewildered. Men in turbans rummaged through blackened wreckage, laying the boots and jackets of dead security guards in a muddy pile. 'I have spent all my 22 years in fighting and this kind of explosions,' said Zada, the shopkeeper. 'It will be like this forever.' Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report. 