Taliban militants attacked a guesthouse used by an American aid contractor in Kabul on Friday, holding several Americans and other foreigners hostage, the New York Times reported.
According to Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi, the deputy interior minister who went to the scene, a suicide car bomb explosion helped the militants invade the house.
General Salangi told the Times that three Americans, one Malaysian, and one African were trapped inside while a sixth person, an aid worker from Australia, escaped.
Of the four militants, one was killed in the car bomb, a second was killed by police, and the other two continue to exchange gunfire with police officers.
The Taliban's target was the home of workers from the San Francisco-based Roots of Peace, according to the group's director, Sharif Osmani.
Osmani said two security guards from the organization -- funded by the Asian Development Bank and the United States Agency for International Development -- were injured but that everyone else was safe.
At least 18 people, including children, were evacuated from a nearby compound though their affiliation in Afghanistan is unclear. As the Times notes, foreign children in the country are rare.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack about three hours after it began. He mentioned that the building where the foreigners were staying was "actually a church used to convert Muslims to Christianity."
