Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Al Qaeda Being Blamed For Two Major Attacks in Afghanistan

Aired September 06, 2002 - 05:31   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Al Qaeda is being blamed for two major attacks in Afghanistan. One was an assassination on President Hamid Karzai, an attempted assassination; the other a deadly explosion at a crowded market in Kabul.
For the latest we go live to the Afghan capital. Our Christiane Amanpour is on top of this story -- good morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, well, the investigations into both of those incidents do continue. From what we hear from local Afghan officials here, one man is in custody, although we need to get further confirmation of that and whether this man is at all connected to the bombing that took place here in Kabul yesterday, which caused such heavy casualties.

According to local Afghan radio, some 26 people were killed yesterday and more than 100 people were wounded when a car bomb explode in a busy downtown area. That happened just before that attempted assassination attempt against the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. He had been in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the southern part of this country. He was there yesterday to attend the wedding of his brother and while he was visiting the governor of Kandahar, an ally in the fight against the Taliban, there was a shooting incident whereby one person, a guard at the governor's mansion, fired at Karzai's car. Karzai, as we know, was not hit, and he is now back in Kabul.

Very quickly, though, Afghan officials blamed remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda forces and they are still trying to investigate and see exactly who was responsible and what the motivation was.

The body of the would be assassin -- he had been killed by U.S. special forces and Afghan bodyguards, who leapt out and opened fire yesterday -- his body is now under the control of U.S. Army people in the airport base at the Kandahar Airport. So they are trying to work out who he was, why he did that and what the motivation behind that is.

Karzai, though, is still here in Kabul today. He is scheduled to meet with the visiting Russian defense minister, so he does continue his official duties -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Christiane, why are officials so certain that al Qaeda is to blame for these two incidents of violence?

AMANPOUR: Well, they say that this is speculation, but informed speculation. They're saying that they had been told to be on alert, and certainly we had also been told not only by U.S. forces here, but also by international peacekeepers and other officials, to be on alert for any kind of disturbances by people such as remnants from the Taliban, elements of al Qaeda, disturbances around this anniversary period of September 11.

What the government here believes is that although the majority of those forces are in disarray and on the run, there are still elements that are able to cause these destabilizing incidents and they know that these elements are trying to destabilize this central government, and, in some cases, trying to act against the presence of U.S. and international forces here.

So they were on alert for that and they're saying that their main suspects in this are remnants, as I say, of Taliban and al Qaeda -- back to you.

COSTELLO: And, Christiane, god forbid if anything did happen to Hamid Karzai, there's no one next in line to take over for him to keep that country stable, is there?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, there are, there is a vice president and there are officials around him. This, basically most of this cabinet is considered a moderate pro-Western cabinet. Dr. Abdullah, the foreign minister, is very well known to the international community. Certainly during the lead up top the fall of the Taliban, he is a key member of this government. And there are others, too, many of whom have come from abroad. Many of these people are pro- Western and want to bring Afghanistan out of this isolationist period that it's been in and this period where it was a haven for terrorism.

But having said that, clearly Hamid Karzai is the symbol and the man in whom everything is invested. He is strongly supported by the United States. He is considered crucial for the continuation of this war on terror and for the very stability and the future of a safe and secure Afghanistan. So he's very important.

COSTELLO: He sure is.

Thank you.

Christiane Amanpour reporting live for us this morning.

Our crews in Afghanistan will, of course, keep us posted on developments there.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com