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CNN Live At Daybreak

Latest on Assassination Attempt and Bombing in Afghanistan

Aired September 06, 2002 - 06:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is finally Friday. Happy Friday, September 6th, from CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks for being with us today.

We begin this hour with the latest on those violent attacks that have rocked Afghanistan. Officials there are now putting the blame on the Al Qaeda network for the assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and for two bomb blasts in Kabul that killed at least 26 people.

We head now to the Afghan capital and CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who will bring us up to date.

Good morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Investigations continue into who was that would-be assassin who fired those shots in the direction of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday. The would-be assassin, the gunman, was killed when Afghan and U.S. Special Forces body guards of Karzai attacked him after he fired those shots. And we are hearing his name is Abdul Rama (ph), and according to the local authorities down in Kandahar, where this took place yesterday, his name was Abdul Rama (ph).

We're told he was recently drafted into the security forces that guard around the governor's palace in Kandahar province. Apparently, this man came from Helmand province, which is in southwestern Afghanistan, and it is a former stronghold of the Taliban. And it's an area where it's believed many of the senior remnants of the Taliban fled after they were routed by U.S. and other forces last year.

So investigations still continue into that incident. Hamid Karzai himself was unscathed, though he missed those bullets miraculously, just by inches. He was in the car when they were fired. Two bullets entered the car and did not hurt him. They did hurt the governor of Kandahar, and he is being treated at the American military base outside Kandahar and now released. As I say, investigations into that incident continue.

Now, we also are trying to find out exactly who was responsible for an earlier massive car bombing explosion here in Kabul yesterday. That killed, according to Afghan media reports now, a total of 26 people in Kabul yesterday and injured about 150 more. Again, the Interior Ministry here says that they have one person in custody, apparently the owner or the driver of a taxi that was used as that massive car bomb, although the Interior Ministry says they have not yet gleaned any information from him, whether he was actually linked to the explosion.

The Afghan officials were very quick yesterday after both these attacks in Afghanistan to blame remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, saying that they had expected elements of these defeated forces to try to show some show of strength during these days leading up to the anniversary of September 11th.

And of course here in Afghanistan, there is also another significant anniversary. On September 9th, the first year anniversary of the death of Ahmed Shaw Massoud, the legendary anti-Taliban Northern Alliance commander.

Back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, Christiane, rough pictures to show this morning. Just terrible.

Let me ask you something about the explosion that killed the 26 people. These were very powerful explosives and seem to be a lot of ammunition, which -- I mean, what does that mean about Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. They still have quite a stockpile of weaponry?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, it's unclear exactly what it means. What we know, or at least what we've been told, you know, there's a force of 7,000-strong Americans here, hunting down Al Qaeda. What is -- is basically true is that they have been disrupted and they are on the run. But what is also true, according to security officials, is that they do maintain some capabilities. Some elements still remain here.

And they have already said, and they are expected to try to destabilize this government. That is clear, because even a few months ago authorities here foiled another would-be assassination attempt against Hamid Karzai when a car packed with many, many kilograms of explosives was found here in Kabul.

So these incidents are occurring. For the most part, they have been few and far between. Yesterday's was the most deadly attack in Kabul, in Afghanistan, since the fall of the Taliban last year. And that, of course, is very worrying.

But of course people did expect something like this to happen around this time. Local officials here, government officials, are saying that these elements are trying to show to their own audience that they still maintain some capability. But that is not to say that they don't pose a very serious worry and a very serious threat. And the government here is desperate for more security, more international security, not only to shore up its own authority beyond the capital of Kabul, but to try to pacify much more areas of this very big country.

Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. Christiane Amanpour, reporting live for us from Afghanistan this morning.

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