KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants stormed a government building in the center of the Afghan capital today and one of them blew himself up inside, killing five people, officials and witnesses said.

The rare attack inside the capital comes three days after senior officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to reach out to the Taliban in an attempt to end the seven-year insurgency.

“Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution to end the violence,” President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.

Assailants opened fire on police guards outside the Ministry of Information and Culture, then entered its cavernous hall where the explosion occurred, said Amir Mohammad, a policeman wounded in the blast.

The explosion caused one of the building’s side walls to collapse, scattering glass and office equipment across the area. The light-blue metal gates at the ministry’s entrance were flung open and twisted by the blast.

“There were three people. They were running. They opened fire on our guard first and then they entered (the building),” Mohammad told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Kabul.

The force of the blast flung Mohammed onto the street, where he lay unconscious among shattered glass and pools of blood.

Five people were killed, including a policeman, three ministry employees and another civilian, the Interior Ministry said.

Twenty-one people were wounded, said Abdul Fahim, the spokesman for the Health Ministry, which supervises the hospitals where the injured were taken.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said his group was responsible for the attack, saying three militants stormed the main gate by throwing hand grenades at the guards.

A man named Naqibullah from the eastern Khost province carried out the suicide attack, Mujahid told the AP. The other two men fled.

Abdul Rahim, a witness, said he heard machine gun shots, saw a policeman lying on the ground and then saw the explosion that rocked the building.

Ministry workers were helped out of the building by security personnel. Ambulances carried the wounded to hospitals.

The Afghan government has said it is seeking talks with elements of the Taliban leadership in an effort at reconciliation, and the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan said the two sides recently had contacts in Saudi Arabia.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the incoming head of U.S. Central Command Gen. David Petraeus have endorsed efforts to reach out to members of the Taliban considered willing to seek an accommodation with the Afghan government.

While insurgents regularly use suicide attacks against Afghan and foreign forces around the country, they have been rare in Kabul.

On July 7, a suicide attacker set off explosives outside the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing more than 60 people, and wounding 146.

Separately, four police were killed in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, after their patrol vehicle struck a newly planted mine, said Zulmai Ayubi, the provincial governor’s spokesman. He blamed the Taliban for the attack.

More than 5,200 people have died so far in the insurgency related violence in Afghanistan, according to a tally of figures compiled by the AP.

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Associated Press reporter Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this story.