Taliban claims car bomb attack near Spanish Embassy in Kabul

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a Friday car bomb attack on a guesthouse near the Spanish Embassy in Kabul. Spain said one of its police officers was killed in the bombing. A U.N. statement said an Afghan policeman had also been killed in the attack. Seven civilians were wounded.

Gunfire was reported immediately after the explosion, and erupted again later Friday night as security forces tried to flush out Taliban attackers from a heavily protected area of the capital close to many foreign embassies and government buildings.

Early Saturday, the Afghan government announced the end of the siege in a tweet. "Afghan Police Special Forces have killed all the attackers who were involved in last night terrorist attack in Kabul," said information ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Reports throughout Friday put the number of attackers at five or six.

Earlier Friday, a Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted "an invader's guesthouse."

The injured were taken to a hospital operated by the aid group Emergency, about 700 meters from the embassy, according to a tweet from the organization, but there were no other reports of damage or casualties.

The attack was the latest in a series against foreign targets in Kabul as the Taliban have stepped up their attacks since the withdrawal of international forces from combat operations last year.

The blast, which interrupted several months of relative calm in the Afghan capital, came after President Ashraf Ghani returned from a regional peace conference in Islamabad aimed at reviving stalled peace talks with the Taliban.

It followed an attack on an airport complex in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 50 civilians and security forces personnel and was suppressed only after more than a day of fighting.

With wire services.