Kabul, Dec 12 (EFE).– Ten people, including two Spanish police officers, died in a Taliban attack on a Spanish Embassy compound in the Afghan capital and an ensuing gun battle, a nearly 12-hour incident that ended early Saturday and represented a new show of force by the insurgents.

Both the Spanish and Afghan governments confirmed Saturday that, despite earlier reports, the so-called “guest house” near the Spanish embassy that had been targeted in the attack was really a compound housing Spanish diplomatic personnel in Kabul.

Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz, for his part, said Saturday that the attack that killed the two Spanish police officers and wounded a third was an “attack on Spain.”

After visiting the family of one of the victims – police officer Isidro Gabino San Martin – in the northwestern Spanish city of Leon, Fernandez Diaz told reporters that the ministry was not ruling out any hypothesis about the perpetrators and their objectives and that the investigation was ongoing.

“What we’re facing here is a terrorist attack in which two Spanish citizens died and in which our interests suffered grave damage. It was therefore an attack on Spain and on our collaboration in the consolidation of democracy in Afghanistan,” the minister added.

Afghan security forces on Saturday were continuing to cordon off the diplomatic district of northern Kabul where the attack occurred, while passing vehicles and pedestrians crunched broken glass that was scattered all over the ground.

The assault began when a suicide attacker slammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a wall at the entrance to the guest house early Friday afternoon.

An intense gun battle ensued that caused damage to several buildings.

“I was at home with my family when I heard a powerful explosion that shook my house and caused the windows to shatter,” 16-year-old Esmatullah, whose family lives just yards away from the embassy compound, told EFE.

He said he went to the balcony and saw fire and smoke outside the embassy compound, followed shortly afterward by a gun battle that lasted until early Saturday morning, adding that he and his family hid in the back of their home while the fight was raging.

The explosives-packed vehicle blasted a hole in the wall, enabling three other heavily armed Taliban fighters to enter the premises, Afghan officials said.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused some damage to the Spanish Embassy and killed two Spanish police officers, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s administration confirmed.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said efforts were being made to accelerate the process of repatriating the bodies of the Spanish security forces, identified as Jorge Garcia Tudela and Isidro Gabino Sanmartin.

Four Afghan police also were killed in the attack, according to local officials, who also confirmed the deaths of all four Taliban attackers.

Nine other Afghans were wounded in the assault.

The Taliban said they had targeted a “foreign invaders’ guest house,” without mentioning the Spanish Embassy.

The attack came three days after the Taliban launched an assault Tuesday on the international airport in Kandahar that left 68 dead: 39 civilians, 13 soldiers, two police and 14 insurgents. EFE