NATO helicopters fired rockets before dawn today at Taliban gunmen who stormed one of Afghanistan’s premier hotels, ending a brazen, nearly five-hour assault that left 19 people dead including all eight attackers.

The strike against the Inter-Continental was one of the biggest and most complex to have occurred within Kabul and appeared designed to show that the insurgents are capable of striking even in the centre of power at a time when US officials are speaking of progress in the nearly 10-year war.

It occurred less than a week after President Barack Obama announced the beginning of an American withdrawal and the transfer of security responsibility to the Afghans in several areas, including most of Kabul province.

Militants who had managed to penetrate the hotel’s security measures began the attack around 10 p.m. yesterday, on the eve of a conference about the transfer of security responsibilities.

After hours of fighting, two NATO helicopters opened fire at about 3 a.m. on the roof of the five-story hotel where militants had taken up positions.

US Army Maj Jason Waggoner, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan, said the helicopters killed three gunmen and Afghan security forces clearing the hotel worked their way up to the roof and engaged the insurgents.

A final explosion occurred a few hours later when one of the bombers who had been hiding in a room blew himself up long after ambulances had carried the dead and wounded.

Latifullah Mashal, the spokesman of the Afghan National Directorate for Security, said eight suicide attackers were involved and all had either blown themselves up or been killed by Afghan or coalition forces.

The 11 civilians killed included a judge from an unnamed province, five hotel workers and three Afghan policemen, Mashal said.

He said no foreigners were killed, but two foreigners were among 14 people wounded in the attack. He did not disclose their nationalities.

Nazar Ali Wahedi, chief of intelligence for Helmand province in the south, called the assailants “the enemy of stability and peace” in Afghanistan.

“Our room was hit by several bullets,” said Wahedi, who is attending the conference elsewhere in the capital.

“We spent the whole night in our room.”

As the helicopters attacked and Afghan security forces moved in, there were four massive explosions.

Officials at the scene said the blasts occurred when security forces either fired on suicide bombers or they blew themselves up.

After the gunmen were killed, the hotel lights that had been blacked out during the attack came back on.

Afghan security vehicles and ambulances were removing the dead and wounded from the area.

Hours later, however, the last of the suicide bombers, who had been injured and was holed up in a room, blew himself up, Kabul Police Chief Gen Mohammad Ayub Salangi said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the rare nighttime attack in the capital, an apparent attempt to show that they remain potent despite heavy pressure from coalition and Afghan security forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid later issued a statement claiming that Taliban attackers killed guards at a gate and entered the hotel.