An explosion rocked Kabul on Saturday, hours after the newly appointed U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel landed in the Afghan capital. At least nine people were killed and 14 others injured, police said. A suicide bomber apparently targeted the Afghan ministry of defense, said Charlie Stadtlander, ISAF spokesman. Hagel was not injured, and is in a safe International Security Assistance Force location, according to the U.S. military. He was in a briefing at the time and "continued as planned without interruption," Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The bomber wearing a suicide vest approached the ministry on a bicycle, also laden with explosives, Kabul police said. He detonated near its gate.
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ISAF commander says Taliban still limited
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A suicide bomber detonated in Kabul at the ministry of defense
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ISAF headquarters and a military camp are nearby
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Hagel is safe and unharmed; no one at the military camp was injured
Taliban
"I'm not sure that I would accept that the @placeholder knew the secretary was here in time to have planned that particular operation," he said.
Kabul
Kabul
Kabul
There has been violence, there are still people out there who want to conduct violence in @placeholder, 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.
U.S.
U.S.
"We're still at war in Afghanistan," he said, although it was never the @placeholder' intention to stay indefinitely.