Cairo – A top Taliban commander said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, during the visit there by Vice President Dick Cheney, according to an interview shown Wednesday by Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera.
Bin Laden planned and supervised the attack that killed 23 people outside the base during Cheney’s visit, said Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban’s main military commander in southern Afghanistan who has had close associations with al-Qaeda.
“You may remember the martyr operation inside the Bagram base, which targeted a senior U.S. official. … That operation was the result of his wise planning. He (bin Laden) planned that operation and guided us through it. The operation was a success,” Dadullah said.
He did not say how he knew that bin Laden planned the attack, and it was not clear when the interview took place.
The bombing killed about 20 Afghan civilians, a U.S. soldier, a U.S. contractor and a South Korean soldier.
