KABUL — Afghan security forces on Sunday killed the last of six Taliban militants to end a 13-hour siege at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed at least 18 other people, including 14 foreigners.
Some of the 150 guests fled the shots and a fire set by the militants by shimmying down bedsheets from upper floors.
Tolo TV, an Afghan news channel, said the death toll could be as high as 43. The report could not be confirmed.
The militants, who wore suicide vests, pinned security forces down for hours during the attack, which began about 9 p.m. Saturday. The gunmen roamed the hallways and targeted foreigners and Afghan officials inside the luxury hotel before soldiers and police shot and killed them.
The attack capped a violent 24 hours in Afghanistan, during which about 50 people were killed in four provinces, officials said.
The hotel siege was the latest in a string of deadly gun and bombing attacks in the capital that have targeted government intelligence facilities, hotels, mosques, and other sites. The heavily guarded hilltop hotel, which survived Soviet occupation, civil war, and Taliban rule, came under attack from insurgents in 2011, when 11 people were killed in a five-hour assault.
The more than 150 people who were rescued or managed to escape in the latest attack included 41 foreigners, said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish. Of those, 10 people were injured, including six security forces, he said.
Eleven of the 14 foreigners killed were employees of Kam-Air, a private Afghan airline, Danish said.
Six of those killed were Ukrainians, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who added that his office was working with Afghan law enforcement agencies ‘‘to clarify the circumstances of this terrorist act.’’
Two Venezuelan pilots for KamAir were among the dead, according to Luis Figuera. He said that his brother-in-law, Adelsis Ramos, was killed along with Pablo Chiossone, and that their bodies were identified by another Venezuelan pilot at a Kabul hospital.
A citizen from Kazakhstan also was among the dead at the hotel, according to Anuar Zhainakov, a spokesman for the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
Afghan security officials confirmed that 34 provincial officials were at the hotel for a conference organized by the Telecommunication Ministry.
Afghan officials said that also among the dead were Waheed Poyan, the new consul general to Karachi, Pakistan, and Ahmad Farzan, an employee of the High Peace Council, a commission created to facilitate peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents planned to strike the hotel Thursday night but postponed it because a wedding was underway there and they wanted to avoid civilian casualties.
Mumtaz Ahmad, a provincial telecommunication employee for Helmand province, said he was walking from his room to the reception for his group on Saturday night.
‘‘When the elevator door opened, I saw two armed suicide bombers. People were escaping and the attackers were firing at them,’’ he said.
Fire broke out in the six-story hotel as the fighting raged, filling some guest rooms with smoke. Explosions could be heard throughout the standoff. Live TV video showed people trying to escape through windows and from the upper stories as thick, black smoke poured from the building.
The Interior Ministry said it is investigating how the attackers managed to enter the building. It said a private company had taken over security about three weeks ago at the hotel, which is not part of the Intercontinental chain.
Afghan forces have struggled to fight the Taliban since the United States and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.
Among other violence in Afghanistan this past weekend, insurgents burst into a home in Balkh province in the north where several members of a progovernment militia were gathered late Saturday, killing 18 of them. Among the dead was a tribal leader who served as the local police commander.
