At least eight civilians including children and foreigners were killed in a Taliban attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul

At least eight civilians including children and foreigners were killed in a Taliban attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul, the spokesman for Afghanistan's interior ministry said Friday, just weeks before the country's presidential election.
  
In a brazen assault, four teenage gunmen with pistols hidden in their socks managed to penetrate several layers of security at the Serena hotel, a prestigious venue favoured by foreign visitors to the capital, on Thursday night.
  
One of the civilians killed in the attack was a former Paraguayan diplomat who was in Afghanistan as an election observer, Paraguay's foreign minister Eladio Loizaga said.
  
The Taliban, who have vowed a campaign of violence to disrupt the election on April 5, claimed responsibility for the attack.
 
"8 civilian including, 3 women (2 foreigners), 3 men and 2 children were killed during the terrorist attack on Serena Hotel Kabul last night," interiorministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on his official Twitter feed. Deputy interior minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi gave a death toll of nine -- five Afghans and four foreigners.
  
Loizaga named the Paraguayan election observer as Luis Maria Duarte, a lawyer who also worked for the United Nations.
  
The four attackers entered the hotel around 6:00 pm on Thursday, pretending to be guests, and began firing around 9:00 pm. They were later gunned down by Afghan security forces.