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Bombing Near Cheney Displays Boldness of Resurgent Taliban
Meeting with Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in Islamabad on Monday, Cheney pushed the leader to do more to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda activity in semiautonomous frontier region. Afghan officials have blamed Pakistan for allowing the Taliban a haven to plan and train for attacks in Afghanistan. U.S. officials had long defended Pakistan as a valuable ally, but intelligence reports that al-Qaeda is reconstituting itself in Pakistan have prompted U.S. officials in recent months to publicly question whether Musharraf is doing all he can.
Following the meeting with Musharraf, Cheney flew to Bagram late Monday. He stayed at the base overnight because a storm delayed his meeting in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai until yesterday morning. The delay was reported publicly Monday night.
  Relatives wait to identify victims after a suicide attack outside Bagram air base. The Taliban said the attack was aimed at Vice President Cheney. (By Musadeq Sadeq -- Associated Press)
VIDEO | Vice president was visiting Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan when attack occurred; the Taliban claimed responsibility.
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Just before 10 a.m. yesterday, a suicide bomber driving a Toyota Corolla made it through a gate at the air base manned by Afghan police officers, according to Gen. Salem Ihsas, the police chief in Parwan province, where Bagram is located.
The assailant detonated his explosives before he was able to make it through a second gate, which is manned by U.S. personnel. Ihsas said that 19 people were killed in the blast and that 15 were wounded, mostly Afghan laborers who had reported for work at the base. Other estimates from Afghan officials put the death toll slightly higher, while U.S. authorities said nine people had been killed and 21 injured.
U.S. military officials said the bomber was on foot and did not get as close to the base as Ihsas suggested.
Ihsas said preliminary reports indicated the bomber was not Afghan but declined to say where he was from. "Once we are done with the investigation, we will know exactly," he said.
The dead in yesterday's blast included a South Korean soldier. South Korea is part of the 37-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which is responsible for security throughout Afghanistan.
The United States and Britain -- the two largest contributors of troops in Afghanistan -- both recently announced they would be increasing their force levels, with the U.S. total climbing to 27,000.
About 5,100 U.S. troops, plus 4,000 other coalition personnel and contractors, are stationed at the air base at Bagram.
Special correspondent Javed Hamdard in Kabul and staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.
