Kabul hotel attack similar to Mumbai?

"Kabul hotel attack similar to Mumbai?," the CNN said in a report on last night's terror strike on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, frequented by Westerners, which killed 10 civilians as well as the eight terrorists.

The siege of the hotel, situated on a hilltop, led to hours-long firefight that ended only when NATO helicopters shot dead several insurgents who had commandeered the hotel's roof.

"Tuesday's attack recalls a November 2008 assault on luxury hotels in Mumbai, India, which left more than 160 dead, including nine of the 10 gunmen who launched the attacks," CNN reported, quoting its security analyst Peter Bergen.

The report noted that the gunmen had targeted the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal hotels in Mumbai for their popularity with international travellers and tourists.

Panicked guests in the Kabul hotel were reportedly told to stay in their rooms as the attackers, thought to have suicide vests, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, roamed through the five-storey building, rekindling scenes from the Mumbai attack when LeT terrorists went around the Taj Hotel, looking for western targets.