Reflection And Gunfire In Afghanistan

A bugler played taps Wednesday, the flag was lowered to half staff and a small piece of the World Trade Center was buried under the flagpole at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul during ceremonies marking the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

The ceremony took place in the capital of the country which — apart from the United States — was most affected by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Brad Hanson announced that Sept. 11 would henceforth be known as Patriot Day and, speaking on behalf of President Bush, he urged every American to take one moment of silence each year on this date to remember the more than 3,000 people killed in the attacks.

A steel-gray marble headstone marked the resting place of the remains brought from the ruined World Trade Center. Inscribed on it: "We serve because they cannot"

It was flanked by other headstones, one a marble tribute to U.S. Ambassador Adolph 'Spike' Dubs who was assassinated in 1979 in Kabul. The second one, a black marble headstone, commemorates the dead in last year's terrorist attack.

The piece of the World Trade Center was brought here by Marine Lt. Kyle Aldrich, a 27-year-old New Yorker who had worked on Wall Street and lost friends in the attacks on the twin towers.

It was locked in a special container and buried Tuesday. The marble headstone was unveiled at the ceremonies Wednesday.

"It is clearly a conglomerate of different pieces of glass and cement fused together, like a cluster or something," Aldrich said searching for the words to describe it. "It is just dark, black and red blood and dust. It looks like an ooze or coating of blood."

Aldrich had worked at Salomon Smith Barney until January last year, when he resigned to join the Marines. Many of his friends had worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and Morgan Stanley. Some died and many more had escaped.

The U.S. military reported two incidents of aggression Wednesday against installations in Afghanistan occupied by American troops.

A lone gunman opened fire at a guard tower on the perimeter of the U.S. military headquarters for Afghanistan in Bagram, prompting return fire from American soldiers, a U.S. military spokesman said.

In Khost, unidentified attackers fired two rockets at the airport in the troubled eastern Afghan city, officials said. No U.S. or allied casualties were reported.

U.S. Army spokesman Col. Roger King said the Bagram gunman, who was believed to have been injured, escaped. The incident occurred hours before a scheduled memorial for the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Gates leading into the Bagram base were closed briefly after the incident. The sprawling base north of Kabul is the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition forces sent to Afghanistan to hunt members of the former Taliban regime and its allies from the al Qaeda terrorist network.

No additional security has been put in place at Bagram ahead of the ceremony, King said, adding: "We think we already have the right systems in place."

Soldiers have been told "to be aware of their surroundings ... and to go about their jobs in a safe manner," King said.

The rockets in Khost exploded in an open field at dawn just east of the airport, where U.S. special forces have a base, said Mohammad Khan Gorbuz, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Gorbuz blamed loyalists of warlord Bacha Khan Zadran for the attack.

Zadran's forces have battled soldiers allied to Gov. Hakim Taniwal since Sunday in and around the city. Taniwal was appointed by President Hamid Karzai.

Up to 50 people have reportedly been killed and wounded in three days of fighting. Gorbuz put the casualty toll lower, saying at least five people were killed and 15 injured.

Apart from the rocket attack, no clashes were reported around Khost on Wednesday. But Gorbuz said security in the city had been tightened and police were searching cars for explosives.

Zadran's forces were pushed out the city Monday and were making a stand Tuesday at Badam Bagh, about five miles to the west. But Gorbuz said Zadran's forces had now retreated completely and Taniwal loyalists had opened the road that runs northwest from Khost to Gardez.

Tensions between Zadran and Karzai's allies have been festering for months, sometimes prompting sporadic fighting.

Khost province, which borders Pakistan, is one of the key fronts in the war against terrorism, and the United States has been working with both of the rivals in the hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts.

In other news, authorities in the United States and Afghanistan say the assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai probably was engineered by the ousted Taliban regime, rather than al Qaeda terrorists.

"A lot of the violence — including, we may well find out, the assassination attempt on Karzai — are the product of remnants of the old regime that are still around, that are still trying to kill us and kill our allies and make way for terrorists," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday in an interview with AP Radio and AP Television News.

Another senior defense official later said on condition of anonymity that intelligence gathered so far points to Taliban.

Another U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Taliban's role in the attempt has not been definitively established. Another possibility includes the forces of the former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, or old tribal enemies, officials have said.

Afghan provincial authorities in Kandahar said the gunman who shot at Karzai, identified as Abdul Rahman, came from a pro-Taliban district west of the city. They also said they suspect fugitive Taliban agents — rather than al Qaeda — were behind the assassination attempt.

"This was Muslims killing Muslims...not Muslims killing foreign infidels," Wolfowitz said of the shooting and bombing that day that killed 30 people.

Wolfowitz was responding to a question on the state of security in Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces 11 months ago began a military campaign to crush Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban rulers who harbored him.

He labeled as absurd recent criticism that security in the South Asian country appears to be collapsing.

"Let's think where it was a year ago," he said. "It was under the control of a tyrannical regime that had several million people on the edge of famine who were their enemies. Nobody was safe in that country."