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CNN Live Today

Assassination Against Afghan President Averted

Aired September 05, 2002 - 13:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now details coming in from CNN's Christiane Amanpour, reporting now from Kabul -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, all afternoon we've been following this story. And it was just a couple hours ago that the Afghan government did confirm that the target of today's assassination attempt in Kandahar was, in fact, Hamid Karzai.

What had happened was that Hamid Karzai was on a private visit to Kandahar, which as you know is the former Taliban stronghold. He there was for his brother's wedding. At a time when he was at the governor's mansion visiting with the governor, he came out with governor, and there, we are told, an armed man, a man in Afghan military uniform, opened fire. This slightly wounded the governor. But it missed Hamid Karzai.

This is what Abdullah had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Of course, this was clearly an assassination attempt on his life, which we had, unfortunately, injured and other wounded and killed people in the spot. But the assassination attempt on the president himself failed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: We're told that the governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Sherzai, is being operated and treated by American medics at the American army base there at the Kandahar Airport. He apparently is not seriously injured.

Karzai himself is being airlifted back to Kabul. He was due to stay until tomorrow at least to attend this wedding party of his brother. But now, because of these security concerns, the U.S. is airlifting him back to Kabul.

We are not at all sure whether it's connected, but this assassination attempt came right after a massive explosion rocked downtown Kabul. It was a car bomb, it caused heavy casualties and it was designed to cause the maximum number of civilian casualties because it happened in a series of two. There was first a small explosion that drew onlookers who came to watch, also security forces in the area. And several minutes later, another, much bigger explosion was detonated, causing very heavy casualties.

There have been conflicting numbers of casualties all through the day, but we do know that a heavy number of people were injured, and at least 10 people, perhaps 15 and maybe even more, were killed, according to Afghan authorities here.

Although they have not yet conducted a full investigation, Afghan authorities are very definitely blaming remnants of the Taliban, al Qaeda; they're saying that these people in the run-up to the anniversary of September 11 are trying to show that they are still around, that they can still pull off some of these attacks. But they say they are on the run. But they had expected some kind of incident during this time. But of course, today's were very violent, the most that this city, this country has seen since the Taliban were routed last year.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Christiane, we've talked a lot about President Hamid Karzai, of course, and his assassination attempt. What do we know about Governor Sherzai. How good of friends are these two. How do you those in Kandahar feel about the governor?

AMANPOUR: Well, the governor came in, as you know, sort of in December, after the Taliban was routed from Kandahar, in December. And he is an ally of Hamid Karzai's, and he has been cooperating in this war on terrorism, in the whole future stability in Afghanistan, and cooperating with the coalition forces there. So it doesn't appear that he was the target; it appears that he was caught in the crossfire.

Karzai himself is an ethnic Pashtun and knows all these people down in that southern region. His brother was getting married there. This is part of where he has grown up and has lived for some years of his life, and part of where he spent the resistance time, around the Kandahar area, outside of Kandahar, with his brother. And they were joining the U.S. fight just before the Taliban was routed.

So there is a deep history for both of those men in Kandahar.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much.

This new violence in Afghanistan is definitely a matter of serious concern at the Pentagon.

And that is where we find out military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre. He is covering the story from there.

Jamie, a quick question: We have been showing these pictures from "The Associated Press," recently photos of Special Ops soldiers that are guarding Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Is it OK if we show their faces?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, first of all, they have already been shown. Second of all, these people are in public, guarding Hamid Karzai in public, so it is not a secret who they are. If you look at the security detail surrounds President Karzai, you can pretty clearly pick out Americans in their Special Operations uniform, with vests over them. They typically maybe sprouting some hair growth on their face. But you know, they look like Americans; you can see them. And you know we pretty much already have shown these pictures as they appear in public.

Now the Pentagon has, essentially, confirmed their initial reports that those U.S. Special Operation troops were the ones that opened fire on the gunman who apparently was trying to assassinate President Karzai. The Pentagon has also confirmed, within the last hour, what Ryan Chilcote reported earlier, that there was a U.S. soldier injured in the incident. They use the word "injured": We do not know if he was wounded by gunfire or somehow injured in some other way. But they do describe the injuries as minor. And they list him in stable condition in a military medical facility in Kandahar. So not a serious injury there to one of the members of the U.S. Special Operations detail that was guarding President Karzai.

You may recall that there is a plan in works to transition from the U.S. military providing security for the Afghan president to a State Department security detail. But Pentagon officials say while that was supposed to happen soon, it has not happened yet -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jamie McIntyre, from the Pentagon. Thanks again, Jamie.

Our Andrea Koppel is following developments from the State Department. She joins us now.

Andrea, we understand that shooter in this assassination attempt may -- and I stress "may" -- have been a member of the Afghan government security or military, that there is a longstanding rivalry between Karzai and Afghanistan's defense minister, Mohammad Fahim. Who is in charge of both? What you can tell viewers about that?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these two men have a long history together, going back to before the Taliban, when Hamid Karzai was the deputy foreign minister and Mohammad Fahim was again in charge of the security services. He called Hamid Karzai in for interrogation, and Hamid Karzai believes he escaped with his life. The two do not like each other. There is a strong rivalry that exists between them -- so much so that Hamid Karzai dismissed his security services, which are run by Mohammad Fahim, and asked U.S. Special Forces to come in and protect him instead -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Andrea Koppel, from the State Department. Thank you for the update from there.

And joining to us talk more about the military aspect of what's happening in Kandahar is CNN military analyst General David Grange. We'll also talk about Iraq, too.

GENERAL DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good afternoon.

Let's first talk about the explosions in Kabul today. Clearly, a terrorist attack. And also, do you believe there is a connection between the explosions and this assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai? The only relationship between the two incidents I would believe that it's just a surge of actions that are going to take place into the future. This is going to continue to happen during this phase after the initial takedown of Taliban and the al Qaeda. This is going to continue. So they are connected in that regard.

I believe that the attacks were probably done by al Qaeda, tied to maybe one of the other factions that has a problem with the present government.

PHILLIPS: U.S. Special Ops are protecting Karzai. And that there report that the alleged assassin may have been trained by U.S. Special Ops soldiers because the shooter was identified as someone in an Afghan military uniform. What do you think? What's your take? Is that a possibility, or is this someone who infiltrated and put the uniform on?

GRANGE: It would be easy to infiltrate the force. That could have happen during the recruiting period with the intend to infiltrate the army to do something in a future date if necessary by somebody that opposed the government. Or someone could have just bought the uniform. But because that person was in area, there's probably someone that was set in there early, kind of as a sleeper within the military.

So though they were trained by Special Forces, they would not be trained in that kind of an attack. Special Forces train these soldiers in basic infantry tactics. So this individual that infiltrated, if that is the case, was trained in some other assassination techniques from somewhere else. And then if he posed a threat by either pointing a weapon or shooting, then he would have been taken down immediately by the Special Operations security detail.

PHILLIPS: Do you think that U.S. Special Ops should continue this detail of protecting the Afghan president?

GRANGE: Well, unless there a viable alternative. There is, of course, in United States, but in the country itself, I am not sure they are trained up to the standards that would be required by a presidential figure, in this case President Karzai. So I think because of the incident, you may see the U.S. involved a little bit longer.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's move to Iraq. Congress, it looks like, is going tot support an attack on Iraq. What do you think the military is going to say.

GRANGE: The military will follow orders. The military is prepared to attack in several locations potential enemies, to include Iraq. There is no secret to anyone that Iraq has always been on a might-do list. So once the decision is made, the military will follow those orders.

Now, the military will comment on how to it, when to do it, exactly where to do it, but politically, they will just do it when they are told to do it. PHILLIPS: General, do you support an attack on Iraq?

GRANGE: I do.

PHILLIPS: Tell me why.

GRANGE: Because 1), I think there is enough evidence that this is truly an enemy of our country and our allies. You know, Saddam is doing stalling tactics just to survive. It's just a matter of time. And if you look beyond the actual fight itself -- not to say that's not going to be a nasty, terrible event -- it will be; that is what war is about -- but if you look beyond that, beyond the next hill or two, because Iraq has a lot of educated populace, and because of oil and other potentials, to be a better place than it is today, they could be a catalyst for some very good change in the entire Middle East. And I think that would happen long-term if the regime in Iraq was changed.

How interesting. You come out and say to me directly, absolutely, I support an attack on Iraq, yet in past number of weeks, a number of international allies saying, No, hold on, you've got to go through the UN; we need to wait on this -- a number of key generals coming out, including Powell and Scowcroft and Zinni saying, No, we need to back down. You, a general, firsthand experience, saying yes. What do you think about these other generals saying hold on?

GRANGE: Well, I am not saying we shouldn't go through some kind of other process that are required. In other words, you want the will of the American people. It doesn't mean that everybody votes yes or no you are going to go to war, but you want that moral will from the American people to take on the war. You want Congress to support it, because the bottom line is Congress pays for war. And if they don't pay for the war, you are not going to conduct war. It's a simple as that. So I think that is going to happen.

PHILLIPS: Military analyst General David Grange, always a pleasure, sir. Thank you.

GRANGE: Thank you.

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