Taliban launched multiple attacks in Afghanistan Sunday, took over a hotel in Kabul and attempted to break into the Parliament.

Taliban launched multiple attacks in Afghanistan Sunday, took over a hotel in Kabul and attempted to break into the Parliament.

According to AFP, large explosions and massive gunfire hit the Afghan capital in a region close to the US Embassy, and fire erupted in the newly built Kabul Star hotel, which is located in an area including a major US military base, the United Nations office, and the presidential palace.

Moreover, the agency reported that several attackers tried to enter the Afghan parliament but were engaged by security forces and driven back.

“They had taken cover in a building near the parliament and fighting was ongoing,” Parliamentary Media Officer Qudratullah Jawid told AFP.

For his part, Kabul Police Chief, Mohammad Ayoubi Salangi was quoted as saying that one of the attackers was killed after clashes.

“Near the parliament, the first floor of a neighboring building has been taken by police and one terrorist is dead,” he said.

In Logar province, south of Kabul, several suicide attackers entered government buildings, including the offices of the provincial governor, police headquarters, and a US base, Deputy Provincial Police Chief, Raees Khan told AFP.

Similar was the situation east Afghanistan Sunday as a number of people were wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates to Jalalabad airport.

Four bombers were stopped at the gate as they tried to enter the airport and two detonated their explosives while the other two were wounded and arrested, Head of Police at the airport General Jahangir Azimi, , told AFP.

In the eastern town of Gardez in Paktia province, a police training center was also targeted by Taliban gunmen.

“They occupied a building overseeing the facility and opened fire with machine-guns… wounding four civilians,” the Provincial Spokesman Rohullah Samoon told AFP.

Taliban claimed the attacks in Kabul, as its spokesman said in a mobile phone text message that "a lot of suicide bombers" were involved.

In addition, Zabihullah Mujahed indicated in a phone call with AFP that these attacks marked the start of the rebels' “spring offensive”, and were also “a message to the Kabul government and its Western military backers who believed we will not launch a spring offensive”.

“The Kabul administration and the invading forces had said some time ago that the Taliban will not be able to launch a spring offensive. Today's attacks were the start of our spring offensive," he added.

While the US embassy announced a lockdown Sunday, assuring that “its staff were accounted for and safe, with no reports of injuries”, the German embassy was reportedly damaged but no one was believed to be injured.

The German Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the “grounds of the German embassy" had sustained damage but that "as far as we know (there have been) no injuries.”