A suicide bomber blew himself up on the roadway outside the Afghan Defense Ministry in Kabul on Saturday, Afghan officials said as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made his first visit to the country in his new post. At least 8 civilians were killed in the attack, and another six or seven wounded, according to Afghan officials, and reported by NBC News.
The attack was followed by small-arms fire, a spokesman for Afghanistan's NATO-led force said to Reuters. The suicide bomber was either on foot or on a bicycle, according to reports.
Hagel "[was] in a safe and secure and secure location" on an International Security Assistance Force and nowhere near the explosion. "The Secretary was in a briefing when the incident occurred. The briefing continued as planned without interruption," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
The U.S.-led NATO forces are preparing to leave the country by the end of 2014 after over a decade-plus campaign there against al-Qaeda forces and the Taliban .
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and expressed pleasure with Hagel's proximity at the time. The ISAF commander, Gen Joseph Dunford, disputed that the attack signified any alert by the Taliban to its reach.
"I'm not sure that I would accept that the Taliban knew the secretary was here in time to have planned that particular operation," Dunford said to the press. "We've been extremely successful in preventing threats to Kabul. There has been violence, there are still people out there who want to conduct violence in Kabul, but I don't think this sends a message that the Taliban can do what they want to do when they want to do it. In fact, I'm confident they can't do that."
"I wasn't sure what it was," Hagel said to reporters. "I was in a briefing... but we're in a war zone. I've been in war. So, shouldn't be surprised if a bomb goes off or an explosion. We're still at war in Afghanistan.
