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CNN Live Today

Bloodshed in Afghanistan

Aired September 06, 2002 - 12:03   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A day after the worst violence in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the attention turns to who was responsible. Afghan President Hamid Karzai thinks he knows who was behind that assassination attempt. The bloodshed shows just how fragile the political situation remains in Afghanistan.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now live from the capital of Kabul -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Kyra.

And a number of individuals have been detained in connection with this latest attempt on Hamid Karzai's life. The government has already pointed the finger of blame against Al Qaeda and its associates, so those investigations are still continuing.

Now, we have some quite dramatic video, which I think we are going to bring to you right now. It gives us a picture of the kind of chaos that took pays in the moments where Afghanistan nearly lost its head of state.

Rapid machine gunfire coming from U.S. bodyguards after a lone gunmen stepped from out of a crowd that was giving President Karzai a welcome to the Afghan city of Kandahar, stepped out from that crowd, fired two shots at least into the presidential vehicle, then U.S. bodyguards quickly returned fire, killing the gunmen, also killing two other individuals, one of them, an Afghan security agent, another a local bystander who tried to assist President Karzai and then jumped on the attacker.

President Karzai himself said he remains undeterred from attack and will continue his visits, public appearances around the country. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: I have been through this before. I have been hit three times when I was fighting the Soviets, as close as yesterday. Did that stop us from fighting the Soviets? My father was assassinated by the Taliban and terrorists. Did that stop him from fighting against them? I was almost killed in (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Did that stop me from fighting? I will not stop. I'll continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: The attacker has already been named as Abdul Rahman, form the southern Helmand province. He believed to have been close family relative of a senior Taliban figure. Afghan officials say they will now conduct a comprehensive review of how they recruit individuals in the provinces into the security services. He joined the security services within a few weeks of carrying out his attack -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Take us in a little deeper, Matthew, to the international security force, and what does this fell us about infiltration and how easy it is to do so?

CHANCE: Well, this individual had not infiltrated the international security force. It infiltrated or joined the local government security authorities on the ground there in Kandahar, around the government's house. He said he just -- the authorities tell us he just presented himself as a willing individual, and that they had taken him on face value. Obviously, that is not the strategy they say they are going to use in future. They are going to give much more thorough background checks to candidates who want to join the Afghan security forces -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you

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