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Politics

Cheney is unhurt as bomb kills 23 at Afghan air base

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 28, 2007

Vice President Dick Cheney was shuttled into a bomb shelter at the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday morning after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the main gate. Cheney was not injured in the attack, which Taliban militants said was aimed at the vice president.

Was anyone injured?

The blast killed 23 people, mostly Afghan workers waiting outside Bagram Air Base. The dead included a U.S. soldier, a South Korean soldier and a U.S. government contract employee. Another 20 people were wounded.

What happened?

The explosion happened near the first of at least three gated U.S. checkpoints that vehicles must pass through before gaining access to Bagram. Army Lt. Col. James E. Bonner, the base operations commander, said the bomber approached the gate and "when he realized he would not be able to get onto the base," walked into the nearby group.

Was Cheney moved to a secure place?

Although the vice president heard what he described as a "loud boom," the explosion occurred roughly a mile from the building where Cheney was staying. Military officials declared a "red alert" at the base.

"The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate," Cheney told reporters. He said he was moved "for a brief period of time" to a bomb shelter 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."

What was Cheney doing there?

Cheney spent the night on the base in advance of a meeting with Afghan President Hamad Karzai in Kabul. A few hours after the attack, Cheney met with Karzai and then flew to Oman.

Did the attackers know Cheney was on the base?

U.S. officials said their intelligence had detected no specific threat against Cheney, although the Taliban said he was the target. The trip was unannounced and his itinerary had been closely guarded. But word of his presence in Afghanistan leaked out on Monday after a snowstorm delayed his meeting with Karzai, and Cheney decided to stay at the base overnight. That fact was reported on Internet sites and on radio programs that have audiences in Afghanistan. So it was just as likely that the attack outside the gate at Bagram could have been arranged quickly, or redirected toward the air base from another target.

Is the Taliban again a threat in Afghanistan?

Followers of the hard-line Islamic movement have re-grouped and are now a force, particularly in the south and east. Taliban-led militants have stepped up their attacks, and Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for a fresh wave of violence this spring. There were 139 suicide bombings last year, a fivefold increase over 2005, and many expect that number to rise in 2007. The Bagram attack was the fourth in Afghanistan in the past week. U.S. officials are worried the Taliban is using Pakistan to stage cross-border raids and undermine Karzai's authority. Al-Qaida, meanwhile, appears to be more active in Pakistani tribal areas close to the Afghan border.

How many Western troops are in Afghanistan?

A NATO-led force of about 35,000 soldiers is there to help Karzai's government secure the country. NATO wants more troops, but has had trouble getting members to contribute. About 27,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, the most since the 2001 invasion. Britain recently increased troop levels by 1,400, to 7,700 - meaning it will soon have more troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq. The Bagram base houses 5,100 U.S. troops and 4,000 other coalition forces and contractors. More than 190 U.S. personnel have been killed in action in and around Afghanistan; more than 1,100 have been wounded.

[Last modified February 28, 2007, 01:32:27]