CAIRO, April 25: A top Taliban commander has claimed that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a US base in Afghanistan during US Vice-President Dick Cheney's visit, according to an interview aired on Wednesday on Al-Jazeera TV.

Mulla Dadullah, the Taliban’s top military commander, told Al-Jazeera that Osama planned and supervised the attack that killed 23 people outside the big US base at Bagram during Mr Cheney’s visit.

“You may remember the martyr operation inside the Bagram base, which targeted a senior US official. ... That operation was the result of his wise planning. He (Osama) planned that operation and guided us through it. The operation was a success,” Mulla Dadullah told Al-Jazeera.

Mulla Dadullah also insisted that Osama was alive and well, according to the interview. “Thank God he is alive. We get updated information about him.”—AP