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.
The bomber wearing a
suicide vest approached the ministry on a bicycle, also laden with
explosives, Kabul police said. He detonated near its gate.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and expressed pleasure with Hagel's proximity at the time.
Journalists assembled at a separate location, Camp Eggers, heard the blast, which also shook the facility. No one was hurt.
Minutes before the large explosion, they could hear other booming sounds.
Attendees were initially
moved to a safer location, but have since been released and are
expected to continue with their scheduled plans.
A loud speaker announcement at Camp Eggers informed the attendees: "We are not directly under attack at this facility."
The camp temporarily went into lockdown mode.
Camp Eggers and ISAF headquarters are within walking distance from the Afghan defense ministry.
Small arms fire continued there after the blast, ISAF said.
Hagel is the first
Vietnam veteran to head the defense department. He is in Afghanistan to
thank the troops, he said, and "to better understand where we are in
Afghanistan."
During the trip, the
defense department also reiterated U.S. support for South Korea in the
event of military aggression from the North. Little also said that North
Korea cannot unilaterally terminate the Armistice Agreement, according
to legal language included in it.
This is Hagel's first
trip in nearly five years to the country that has been a theater of war
for the United States longer than any other in history.
On his last visit in summer 2008, he traveled with then-Senator Barack Obama.
Hagel told reporters
that he's known Afghan President Hamid Karzai for 11 years and he
expects to talk with him about many topics, including the recent
restrictions on U.S. Special Operations Forces.
"We're still at war in Afghanistan," he said, although it was never the United States' intention to stay indefinitely.
Many in Congress,
including several high-ranking members of his Republican Party, opposed
Hagel's nomination; the final vote in the Senate was 58-41.
Besides not liking his
past comments about Israel and Iran, they bristled at his comments over
the years about Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which came after the 2008
trip.
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