SPIN BOLDAK, Feb 28: Steeling for a spring offensive, the Taliban said on Wednesday they had sent 1,000 suicide bombers to relatively quiet northern Afghanistan, a day after a suicide blast targeted U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

The United States and some Nato nations, led by Britain, are pouring troops in to battle the offensive and to try to crush the insurgents in what analysts say is the crunch year for both sides after the bloodiest 12 months since the Taliban fell in 2001.

At least 23 people, including an American soldier and a South Korean serviceman, died in Tuesday’s suicide car bombing at the main US base in Afghanistan, Bagram.

“We reacted in a very short span of time to attack the base,” Taliban commander Mullah Hayatullah Khan told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location on Wednesday.

“They would have launched a major guerrilla attack on the base as the Taliban are prepared for any sacrifice to kill such an important person and a big infidel.”

Mr Cheney was never in danger from the attack, which occurred just inside a perimeter gate, and was whisked to a bomb shelter immediately after the blast. He later went ahead with talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul before leaving for Oman.—Reuters