"Before I finished talking with the manager, they fired on us," Qasim said. The manager "hid himself behind his desk, but around three to four other guys who were guards and waiters were killed by the attackers."

Windows were shattered. Wicker chairs and tables were overturned on the lawn. A sugar bowl, chipped by flying bullets was lying on a red carpet next to a teapot and a baby bottle filled with milk. One table still had plates of French fries, salad and glasses half-filled with tea.

"Some of the guests jumped from the window into the hotel yard. They were hiding under trees or any safe place they could find," said Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police. "Three of the guests jumped into the lake and hid in the water."

An Associated Press photograph showed the three, who survived the attack, clinging to a stone wall that kept them hidden from the gunmen.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the U.S.-led international military coalition and the U.S.