Taliban: Bin Laden Planned Attack on Cheney

CAIRO, Egypt — 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 Cheney, according to an interview shown yesterday by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

Mr. bin Laden planned and supervised the attack that killed 23 people outside the base during Mr. 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," Mr. Dadullah told Al-Jazeera.

He did not say how he knew that Mr. bin Laden planned the attack, and it was not immediately clear when the interview took place.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was "an interesting claim, but ... I haven't seen any intelligence that would support that."

The bombing killed about 20 Afghan civilians, a U.S. soldier, a U.S. contractor, and a South Korean soldier outside Bagram while Mr. Cheney was meeting with officials inside the base — an attack the Taliban claimed was aimed at Mr. Cheney but which officials said posed no real threat to him.

The attacker never tried to penetrate even the first of several U.S.-manned security checkpoints at Bagram, instead detonating himself among a group of Afghan workers outside the base.

Mr. Dadullah also insisted Mr. bin Laden was alive and well, according to the interview.