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U.S. Base in Afghanistan Target of Bomb Attacks U.S. Base in Afghanistan Target of Bomb Attacks
(about 3 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — An attack by two suicide bombers just outside an American military outpost in Wardak Province at daybreak on Saturday killed at least a dozen Afghans and wounded 58 others, according to Afghan and American officials. Several American soldiers were also wounded. KABUL — Taliban suicide bombers staged what appeared to be a carefully coordinated attack southwest of Kabul on Saturday that killed at least a dozen Afghans and wounded 58 more just outside the same American military outpost where a similar attack one year ago wounded scores of American soldiers.
The same military base suffered a devastating truck bombing last year on the eve of the 1oth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. The attack on Saturday unfolded at daybreak in Sayed Abad, 45 miles from the capital. First a man wearing a suicide vest charged toward the base and a local police headquarters on foot, firing his Kalashnikov before blowing himself up. He did little damage, but his true purpose, officials later said, was to sow confusion and draw attention away from the bigger danger lurking nearby: Another suicide bomber driving a truck hauling a huge cache of explosives.
That earlier assault on the base, known as Combat Outpost Sayed Abad, resulted in one of the worst tolls for foreign troops in a single attack in the war, with 77 Americans wounded and five Afghans killed, and was attributed to the Haqqani Taliban network. The attack proved especially significant because it was one of a handful of high-profile assaults that led American officials to publicly accuse Pakistan’s premier spy agency of supporting the Haqqani network in attacking United States targets. Moments after that first explosion, the truck driver sped toward the base, for some reason stopping just short of it in the midst of a crowd shopping at a bazaar. There, he detonated his payload, killing eight Afghan civilians and at least four Afghan policemen, Afghan officials said. An Afghan Parliament member from the area, Hamida Akbari, placed the death toll at 14, including six members of the Afghan security forces.
According to Afghan officials, the attack on Saturday started with a suicide bomber on foot detonating his explosives at a nearby police headquarters and ended with the detonation of a large cache of explosives being driven toward the base in a truck. The explosions occurred along a tight stretch of road that is home not only to the military outpost and the district police headquarters, but also to a crowded shopping bazaar. A spokesman for the American-led coalition said the truck bombing was near the bazaar and many of the Afghan victims were killed there. The wounded included at least one woman, a child, and three officers of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan national spy agency. Several American soldiers inside the base were also wounded.
Among the Afghans who died, eight were civilians and four were police officers, Afghan government officials said. One Afghan Parliament member from Wardak, Hamida Akbari, placed the death toll at 14, including six members of the Afghan security forces. The Afghans who were wounded included a woman, a child and three officers of the Afghan national spy agency, the National Directorate for Security. One theory quickly emerged: The attack was meant as a reprise of the truck bombing of the same base — Combat Outpost Sayed Abad — that killed five Afghans and wounded 77 United States soldiers last September. That attack was blamed on the Haqqani Taliban network and later gained new significance when American officials described it as one of a handful of high-profile assaults that led them to publicly accuse Pakistan’s premier spy agency of supporting the Haqqani network in attacking United States targets in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, who in recent weeks have repeatedly denied involvement in other deaths for which they were blamed by the Afghan authorities, quickly took responsibility for this attack. A Taliban spokesman said the target was the military outpost, which he noted was the same base targeted last year. He neither confirmed nor denied whether the Haqqani network had carried out the latest attack. Inside the American-led military command in Kabul on Saturday, suspicion immediately turned toward the Haqqanis again. “We believe this attack bears the mark of the Haqqani network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violates Afghan sovereignty,” Marine Gen. John R. Allen, commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
The bombings seemed to follow a clear blueprint: First, a man wearing a suicide vest and waving a Kalashnikov approached the gate of the district police headquarters building and opened fire, said the Wardak police chief, Abdul Qayoum Baqizoy. The police fired back, and the attacker blew himself up. A Taliban spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that the Haqqani network, a clan that has safe haven in the Pakistani-Afghan frontier, carried out the latest attack. But the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, was quick to take responsibility for the attack, after a week in which the Taliban repeatedly denied involvement in other deaths for which they were blamed by the Afghan authorities. He also confirmed that the base was the target and noted that it was the same outpost attacked last year.
According to some officials, that initial blast did not kill anyone. But the explosion and the confusion that followed appeared intended to draw attention from what lurked nearby: A man driving a truck with a far more powerful payload of explosives. The huge blast damaged the military outpost, which also has Afghan troops, said Maj. Adam Wojack, spokesman for the American-led military coalition.
Chief Baqizoy said he thought the driver’s target was the same police headquarters. But American and NATO officials said the bomber’s true target was the combat outpost. The truck exploded very close to the base, but failed to tear open a hole in the perimeter wall, officials said. He added, however, that “it did not penetrate the exterior wall, and there was no assault force that tried to exploit the attack.”
“It did not penetrate the exterior wall, and there was no assault force that tried to exploit the attack,” said Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the American-led military coalition in Kabul. “It was right in front of the bazaar, and that’s why there were so many civilian casualties.” He said a “very small number” of soldiers were wounded. “It was right in front of the bazaar, and that’s why there were so many civilian casualties,” he said.
American officials said the suicide attacker struck just moments before the truck exploded. In the northern city of Kunduz, the Afghan authorities said they captured a Taliban commander who ordered the public stoning deaths two years ago of a young couple that shocked the country and marked the return of a traditional Taliban method of execution. The commander, Qari Neyaz Mohammed, was also responsible for authorizing suicide attacks and was a Taliban military commander in four northern provinces, Afghan officials said.
The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said a man named Ahmad wearing a suicide vest shot at guards at the entrance to the military outpost and then blew himself up. Next, he said, the truck full of explosives barreled into the gate of the base and exploded. The couple that was executed, a 25-year-old man and 19-year-old woman, had eloped after the man failed to persuade family members to allow them to marry. They stayed with relatives in Kunar Province but were persuaded to return by family members who said they would allow a marriage. But once back, they were seized by the Taliban.
In Ghazni Province, two American soldiers were killed Saturday in an insurgent attack. American officials provided no details. In Ghazni Province, two American soldiers were killed during an insurgent attack on Saturday, but no details were provided by the American military.
Later on Saturday, NATO officials got into a heated battle of words with President Hamid Karzai. The night before, Australian forces in Uruzgan Province conducted a house raid that Mr. Karzai subsequently condemned as a violation of a memorandum of understanding that required all such Western operations to have prior approval of provincial officials. Capt. Dan Einert of the United States Air Force, a military spokesman in Kabul, said Mr. Karzai was wrong because the Uruzgan provincial governor had given his approval for the raid, and Afghan military forces accompanied the Australians.
Mr. Karzai said the raid killed 70-year-old Haji Raz Mohammed and his 30-year-old son, Abdul Jalil, and a spokesman for the provincial governor said the two men were not part of the Taliban. Captain Einert said the two men were “military-aged” insurgents.

An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul.

An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul.