One attacker was killed after detonating his vehicle and two were killed by police in the early hours of the morning, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said. One police officer was killed and four were wounded.
The explosion outside the Northgate Hotel, a secure residential compound for foreign military and civilian organizations, destroyed light metal structures in an empty neighbouring compound and left debris strewn about but heavy blast walls remained intact.
As day broke in the grimy industrial zone where the hotel is located, gunfire and occasional explosions rang out but the incident was soon over. No casualties were reported from within the hotel.
The attack on a hotel the Taliban said was a "place of vulgarity and profanity" was the latest in a series against foreign targets in Kabul, underlining precarious security in Afghanistan, even in the capital.
It came around a week after the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a demonstration by members of the mainly Shi`ite Hazara minority, killing at least 80 people.
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