KABUL (Reuters) - Several gunmen, some wearing suicide vests, attacked locations in central Kabul, including a store and government ministries, on Monday morning, government officials, security forces and local television said.
Gunfire could be heard across the capital.
At least two insurgents had entered a large shop near the Justice Ministry and were engaged in a firefight, said a senior government official who asked not to be named.
Two men with suicide vests were locked in a gunbattle with security forces near government ministries, private Tolo television station said, quoting reporters at the scene.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban said 20 of the insurgent group's fighters, including suicide bombers, had occupied several government buildings and were clashing with Afghan security forces.
NATO forces said they were assisting Afghan security forces in securing an area near the central bank, after reports of an explosion.
A security source told Reuters two rockets had also landed inside the capital.
"It is a chaotic scene, we do not know what to do and where to go," an official trapped in a government building near the presidential palace told Reuters.
The attack happened as some cabinet members of President Hamid Karzai were being sworn in.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
