| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Cheney whisked into bomb shelter after blast hits US afghan base |
| 2007-02-28 |
| February 28, 2007 Edition 2 MUSCAT: US Vice-President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan yesterday. Up to 14 people were killed, including one US and one South Korean soldier, in the Bagram air base attack which rebels said was aimed at Cheney. He had been in his room at the base where he had unexpectedly had to stay the night after bad weather forced postponement of his trip to the capital, Kabul, about 60km away. "At 10am I heard a loud boom," Cheney said. Base authorities sounded a red alert and secret service officials told Cheney there had been a suspected suicide attack. "They moved me for a relatively brief period of time to one of the bomb shelters nearby," he said. "As the situation settled down, and they got a better sense in terms of what was going on, I went back to my room until it was time to leave." Nato's death toll in the attack was four, officials said. A Reuters photographer at the scene saw an additional 10 bodies, putting the total at 14. A US government contractor, whose nationality was unknown, was among those killed and 27 people were wounded, Nato said. "We wanted to target ... Cheney," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location. Soon after the blast, Cheney went ahead with talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the capital. - Reuters |
| Posted by:Besoeker |