18 killed in suicide bombing near Afghan base

Kabul, Feb 27 (UNI) A suicide bombing outside the ''heavily guarded'' US military base at Bagram during the visit of US Vice President Dick Cheney, killed at least 18 people today.

Though Mr Cheney was safe inside the base, the blast, emphasised the growing insecurity in the country.

Mr Cheney, who flew in from Pakistan today following talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was expected to hold talks with Mr Karzai today. Talks were however postponed for tomorrow following continuous snowfall throughout the day making movement difficult.

Mr Cheney had reportedly delivered a tough message from Washington to Mr Musharraf asking him to take urgent steps to curb cross border terrorism.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast with a spokesperson from the group saying the Vice president was the intended target.

The base operations commander at Bagram Lt Col James Bonner, however, said a high level of security was maintained at all times in the base.

''Our security measures were in place and the killer never had access to the base,'' Col Bonner said adding that the suicide bomber attacked the local population when he realised he could not get inside the base.

The spokesperson of the NATO-led ISAF troops, Col Tom Collins said the extremists had once again ''resorted to immoral acts of violence against innocent Afghans and the international forces that are here to protect them''.

UNI