Spain opens investigation into Kabul attack

UPDATE: A report has been sent to the High Court Prosecutor in Spain who will order an official police investigation to determine the facts behind Friday’s ten-hour attack by Taliban fighters at the Spanish Embassy in Kabul. 

Two Spanish police officers were killed during the assault, along with at least two other officers as initial reports of ten deaths are lowered. Isidro Gabino Sanmartín Hernández, 48, was shot dead during the attack while Jorge García Tudela, 45, was found dead in his room, with cuts to his neck. 

A great deal of jurisdictional and factual mystery still surrounds the attack, in which all three assailants were killed, seven civilians wounded and 12 rescued. 

The actual location of the attack was the Azizi Bank Guest House next to the embassy, which is often used by American nationals visiting Kabul. Two documents released by the Afghan government refer to an attack on a guest-house which coincides with a report from the Spanish interior ministry which identifies the guest-house as the target and not the embassy itself. 

Foreign Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz has confirmed that the government view the incident as an “attack against Spain” but did not have the embassy as its primary target.

The shift in emphasis is likely to mean the Spanish government will carry out its own investigation but not demand full jurisdiction, as it might if an attack is carried out “against Spanish authorities or Spanish public civil servants,” or “when the crime has been committed against official Spanish installations, including their embassies and consulates.”