Taliban targeted Cheney in Afghan blast
MIL/Agencies, Feb 27, 2007. Caren Bohan
Kabul, February 27, 2007 - A Taliban suicide bomber killed 12 people at the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday in an attack. The rebels said that their main aim was Dick Cheney, but the visiting U.S. vice president escaped.
An American and South Korea soldier were killed, as well as a U.S. government contractor whose nationality was unknown, NATO and Korean officials said. NATO said 27 people were wounded.
Eight bodies in addition to NATO's tally of four dead, putting the toll at 12. "We wanted to target ... Cheney," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.
Soon after the blast, Cheney -- who officials say was never in danger from the blast at the sprawling base -- went ahead with talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the capital.
The meeting had been scheduled for Monday, but was delayed when Cheney was snowed in at Bagram soon after arriving from Islamabad on a visit shrouded in secrecy because of security.
arzai and Cheney met one-on-one for 45-50 minutes at the presidential palace in Kabul -- longer than the planned 30 minutes -- before an expanded meeting with staff and advisers as per Reuters.
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