Taliban claims Cheney was the target in suicide bomber attack

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20.\nCheney was unhurt in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban and was the closest that militants have come to a top U.S. official visiting Afghanistan. At least one U.S. soldier, an American contractor and a South Korean soldier were among the dead, NATO said.\nCheney said the attackers were trying “to find ways to question the authority of the central government.” The Taliban said Cheney was the target.\nAbout two hours after the blast, Cheney left on a military flight for Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai and other officials, then left Afghanistan.\nThe vice president had spent the night at the sprawling Bagram Air Base, ate breakfast with the troops and met with Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.\nHe was preparing to leave for a meeting with Karzai when the suicide bomber struck about 10 a.m., sending up a plume of smoke visible by reporters accompanying him. U.S. military officials declared a “red alert” at the base.\n“I heard a loud boom,” Cheney told reporters. “The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate.”\nHe said he was moved “for a brief period of time” to a bomb shelter on the base near his quarters. “As the situation settled down and they had a better sense of what was going on, I went back to my room,” Cheney added.\nAsked if the Taliban were trying to send a message with the attack, Cheney said: “I think they clearly try to find ways to question the authority of the central government.”\n“Striking at Bagram with a suicide bomber, I suppose, is one way to do that,” he said. “But it shouldn’t affect our behavior at all.”\nMaj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to Cheney. “He wasn’t near the site of the explosion,” Mitchell said. “He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion.”\nThere were conflicting reports on the death toll. Karzai’s office said 23 people were killed, including 20 Afghan workers at the base. Another 20 people were injured, it said.\nNATO’s International Security Assistance Force said initial reports were that three people were killed, including a U.S. soldier, an American contractor and a South Korean soldier. U.S. officials indicated they planned to update that death toll.\nA message posted on a Web site used by militants said “a mujahid ... carried out a suicide attack in front of the second gate of the Bagram Air Base. ... The target was Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney.”\nA purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack, which Ahmadi said was carried out by an Afghan called Mullah Abdul Rahim, of Logar province.\n“We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base,” Ahmadi told AP by telephone from an undisclosed location. “The attacker was trying to reach Cheney.”\nMitchell noted that Cheney’s overnight stay occurred only after a meeting with Karzai on Monday was canceled because of bad weather.\n“I think it’s a far-fetched allegation,” he said, referring to the Taliban claim. “The vice president wasn’t even supposed to be here overnight, so this would have been a surprise to everybody.”\nWhite House spokesman Tony Snow said he did not know whether publicity about Cheney’s overnight stay at the base helped invite the attack.\n“The fact is, the vice president was committed to having a visit with President Karzai,” Snow said. “And they had to delay, due to weather, in being able to get together. He certainly wasn’t going to leave before he finished doing his business.”