In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

KABUL (Reuters) - Elite Afghan police backed by NATO forces ended a 12-hour siege on Friday at a popular lakeside hotel outside Kabul, leaving at least 20 dead after Taliban gunmen stormed the lakeside building, bursting into a party and seizing dozens of hostages. 
  
 The night-time assault on the hotel with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and machine guns again proved how potent the Islamist insurgency remains after a decade of war. 
  
 The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said the attack bore the signature of the Taliban-linked Haqqani group that he said continued to operate from Pakistan, a charge that could further escalate tensions with Islamabad. 
  
 General John Allen's comments come days after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington was at the limits of its patience with Pakistan over the existence of militant networks including the Haqqanis. 
  
 Pakistan says it is doing everything it can to fight militants on its side of the border and accuses Afghanistan of trying to shift the blame for its failure to combat the insurgency. 
  
 At the hotel, terrified guests jumped into the lake in the darkness to escape the carnage, Afghan officials and residents said. Up to 300 people had been inside the hotel when the attack began. 
  
 Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said 12 to 15 civilians, two hotel guards and a policeman were killed in the gunbattle at the Spozhmai hotel, overlooking Qargha Lake. Five attackers were also killed. 
  
 The attack, quickly claimed by the Afghan Taliban, again showed the ability of insurgents to stage high-profile raids even as NATO nations prepare to withdraw most of their combat troops by the end of 2014 and leave Afghans to lead the fight. 
  
 "Afghan National Security Forces and coalition military sources acknowledge that this attack bears the signature of the Haqqani network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violate Afghan sovereignty from the safety of Pakistan," General Allen said in a statement. 
  
 Blood was splattered over the hotel floor and the crumpled body of a man lay in the garden. Women and children were among the wounded. 
  
 "We heard a heavy explosion from a rocket-propelled grenade. We tried to escape, but we were surrounded by suicide bombers. We hid ourselves behind a tree until morning. God protected us," said Abdullah Samadi, 24. 
  
 The gunmen, Samadi said, had been closely watching their prisoners and searching for illegal stocks of wine. 
  
 "Around dawn they came closer to us and we had to jump in the water. We were there until 9 a.m. and then the situation got better and we slowly, slowly swam toward security forces," he said. 
  
 Sediqqi said the Taliban were using civilians as human shields to defend themselves and held about 50 people hostage late into Friday morning. 
  
 Elite Afghan quick-response police backed by NATO troops freed at least 35 hostages in an operation that only began in earnest after sunrise to help security forces avoid civilian deaths in night-time confusion. 
  
 The Taliban complained wealthy Afghans and foreigners used the hotel, about 10 km (6 miles) from the center of Kabul, for "prostitution" and "wild parties" ahead of the Friday religious day holiday. 
  
 Launching their annual offensive this spring, the Taliban threatened to attack more government officials and rich Afghans, but the hotel assault was one of few in which multiple hostages were taken since the start of the war, now in its 11th year. 
  
 President Hamid Karzai said attacking a place where people went for picnics was a sign of defeat for the enemies of Afghanistan. 
  
 "This is a crime against humanity because they targeted children, women and civilians picnicking at the lake. There wasn't even a single soldier around there," said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police investigation unit. 
  
 Television pictures showed several people wading out of the lake onto a balcony and clambering over a wall to safety. 
  
 NATO attack helicopters could be seen over the single-storey hotel building and a balcony popular with guests for its sunset views, while a pall of smoke rose into the air. 
  
 NEW FACE OF INSURGENCY? 
  
 Soldiers and police fanned out around the hotel at dawn, arriving in cars and armored Humvee vehicles and taking cover behind trees flanking the lake and a nearby golf course. 
  
 Qargha Lake is one of Kabul's few options for weekend getaways. Restaurants and hotels that dot the shore are popular with Afghan government officials and businessmen, particularly on Thursday nights. 
  
 Guests at the Spozhmai must pass through security checks before entering the hotel, where tables with umbrellas overlook the water, but security is relatively light for a city vulnerable to militant attacks. 
  
 Violence across Afghanistan has surged in recent days, with three U.S. soldiers and more than a dozen civilians killed in successive attacks, mostly in the country's east, where NATO-led forces have focused their efforts during the summer fighting months. 
  
 NATO commanders, halfway into the process of transferring security responsibility to Afghan forces, are racing through training for the Afghan army and police, including holding basic literacy classes for recruits. 
  
 Well-planned assaults in Kabul in the past year have raised questions about whether the Taliban and their al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network allies have shifted tactics to embrace attacks on landmarks, foreigners and Afghanistan's elite, extending a guerrilla war once primarily waged in the countryside. 
  
 (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Abdul Saboor; Writing by Rob Taylor,Missy Ryan and Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Ron Popeski) ||||| “At 11:30 p.m., a group of three Taliban entered the Spozhmai Hotel and started shooting indiscriminately and injured a lot of civilians who were having a late dinner,” General Zahir said. “Some of the civilians managed to escape, and some were taken hostage.” 
  
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 “We do not know how many people are still trapped inside, and we still do not know the exact number of insurgents,” he said. 
  
 By early morning, American helicopters were shooting flares and the area was swarming with Afghan National Police and army troops. More NATO forces were on the way, according to Afghan officials at the scene, and NATO officials confirmed that it was a joint operation. 
  
 The picturesque hotel is the centerpiece of the resort, which was once the property of Afghanistan’s royal family and is now owned by the government. About 10 miles from the capital, it is one of the few places in Kabul Province where people can go for a break from the crowded city streets. There are boats for rent and cottages for families, and the resort is popular with families on the weekly Friday holiday. 
  
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 The lake is also a favorite spot for young Kabul residents who buy illegal alcohol and drink it in the picnic areas. 
  
 Photo 
  
 In a statement on their Web site on Friday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said was carried out because the resort area included “prime places in Kabul for prostitution and parties.” 
  
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 The Taliban said the hotels in the area were “usually used for immoral and unethical purposes both for the foreigners and their puppet colleagues.” 
  
 A waiter at the hotel, Mohammed Wais, 21, said the attack began at 11 p.m. as he was in the kitchen slicing onions. “Suddenly we heard shooting outside the hotel, we heard shouting and yelling and then somebody said, ‘They shot the guards, they shot the guards,’ ” he said. 
  
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 He and several other workers escaped, Mr. Wasf said, but he knew of at least 20 other workers who were trapped. He said they had told him by cellphone there were about 15 attackers. At 3 a.m. Friday, he said, “their phones were turned off.” 
  
 Amid the attack, some terrified hotel guests jumped into the lake, which is near the hotel and deep, but because they could not swim, they were still clinging to a decorative sea wall built into the water more than six hours later. As the morning wore on, it was increasingly clear that security officials still knew relatively little about what was going on inside the hotel, including the number of hostages or the number of attackers, where they were positioned and whether they were wearing suicide vests. 
  
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 At one point an explosion was heard and smoke rose from the building. 
  
 “So far two bombers have been killed and one is wounded,” said Gen. Ayoub Salangi, the Kabul provincial police chief, adding that it was unknown how many more bombers were in the hotel. 
  
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 Twenty hostages had been rescued, General Salangi said, adding, “We do not know how many more there are in there. There are still some more people trapped.” 
  
 A security official at the scene said the hotel and its setting presented a daunting layout. 
  
 “There are lots of trees; it’s like a jungle, which makes it difficult for us to spot the attackers,” said the official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. “There are a lot of people in the hotel who might have been trapped. We believe the attackers are still able to resist for sometime at least.” 
  
 Another senior police official said that as best they could tell the attackers had brought a lot of ammunition and, because they had occupied a hotel on the eve of the weekend holiday, would have plenty of food at their disposal. 
  
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 This is not the first time the Taliban have attacked civilians. They stormed a branch of Kabul Bank in Jalalabad in early 2011, executing customers, and nearly a year ago they stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, killing at least eight people. |||||
Afghan police have freed 18 hostages and killed two Taliban gunmen who stormed a popular lakeside hotel in Kabul tonight, Reuters reports. But the siege continues and the militants are still holding more captives, and have reportedly killed a hotel guard, officials warned. "Two terrorists have been killed, and we have cleared the second floor of the hotel. We are now clearing the area of the remaining insurgents," said Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi. Assailants were armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Some people trapped inside may have already been "martyred," a senior Kabul police officer said earlier. NATO forces have joined the police in the operation to take control of the hotel, reports the New York Times. The Taliban took responsibility for the strike at the Spozhmai Hotel, saying foreigners and rich Afghans were having "wild parties" there before tomorrow's religious holiday. The hotel is one of several in the Qargha Lake recreation area, where the wealthy are known to congregate with government officials. Afghan attacks against civilians and US forces have increased in recent days. President Hamid Karzai said attacks are on the rise as coalition troops plan to leave the country in 2014.