UPDATE: Spanish Embassy car bomb, 10 dead including two Spanish officers

AS the dust settles in the area surrounding the Spanish Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, the disconsolate facts begin to emerge that 10 people, including two Spanish police officers and four Afghan officers died, while nine others were injured.

The Taliban suicide attack that took place on Friday December 11, and was initially reported by the Spanish Foreign Ministry as being directed at Spain’s Embassy, was in fact aimed and a guest house close by.

Prime Minister Rajoy – while speaking at a political rally in Alicante – announced that contrary to what had been stated, the target now appears to have been a guest house next to the Embassy.

Spain’s Interior Ministry have named the dead officers as 48-year-old Isidro Gabino Sanmartín Hernández, from Asturias, and 47-year-old deputy inspector Jorge García Tudela, from Granada.

Chief Homayoon Aini of the Afghan Interior Ministry’s emergency service said, “After an explosion in a car, some terrorists entered a guest house close to the Spanish Embassy. The attack which was ended by security forces after a 12-hour confrontation saw three of the attackers shot down, and a fourth died in the car bomb explosion.