 KABUL – Insurgents Wednesday attacked two guesthouses and a hotel in downtown Kabul that housed United Nations staff and other international personnel, killing at least eight people in one of their most daring attacks on the Afghan capital. In another sign of the growing reach of militants, rockets were also fired at a foreign-owned luxury hotel near the presidential palace in the heart of the Afghan capital, forcing more than 100 guests into a bunker, a hotel guest said. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the attack in Kabul was an attempt to disrupt the run-off election and “will not succeed.” 
 
 The Taliban said they had targeted the guest-house because of the United Nations’ role in helping organize the run-off. Deadly days Pakistan and Afghanistan have been hit with a series of terror attacks this month. Oct. 28: A car bomb ripped through a market in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 90 people hours after Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan. Oct. 28: Insurgents attacked two guesthouses and a hotel in Kabul that housed United Nations staff and other international personnel, killing at least eight people. Serena's heavily guarded compound in central Kabul was attacked in January 2008 by Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen disguised as policemen. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai Wednesday condemned the "heinous" attack on U.N. personnel and instructed security agencies to reinforce security at foreign installations in the country, according to a statement from the presidential palace. Separately, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an email to The Wall Street Journal that a group of five Taliban fighters equipped with assault rifles and wearing vests have attacked the Bakhtar guesthouse.
– Six United Nations staffers and six others were killed today when militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades, and suicide vests stormed two guest houses in downtown Kabul where international workers were sleeping. One of the dead was American. The nationalities of the others was not immediately known. Rockets hit another hotel in the capital popular with foreigners, forcing 100 guests into an underground bunker, reports Reuters. "We woke to explosions and shooting, and then heard women screaming and crying," said a neighbor of one of the guest houses. Security guards rebuffed attackers at one guest house, but the militants seized another and took hostages until security forces regained control, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Taliban—which has vowed to attack those working on next month's runoff election—claimed responsibility for the attacks and warned of new assaults.