Article published on the 2010-01-05 Latest update 2010-01-06 09:22 TU
Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the man believed to be the suicide bomber who attacked a CIA (Central Intelligence Agnecy) base in Afghanistan, was reportedly a triple agent working for Al-Qaeda and the Jordanian intelligence agency.
Both jihadi websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US network NBC News identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi alias Abu Dujana al-Khorasani, who was arrested in late 2007 and recruited as a double agent by the Jordanian intelligence services.
But an anonymous senior Jordanian official has said there is no evidence that Balawi was the bomber, adding he had supplied valuable information.
Jordanian intelligence services had delivered Balawi to eastern Afghanistan to find Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, reports say, but instead he detonated explosives at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost near the Pakistani border, according to American media, who had cited intelligence sources.
The attack killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian intelligence officer, making it the CIA’s worst single loss of life since 1983.
It is thought that Balawi was ordered by Zawahiri to carry out the attack. He had arranged to meet his CIA handlers in Khost to discuss information he had gathered on Zawahiri.
"You have no idea of the extent or the scope of the intelligence activities in Afghanistan," Bill Ayers, an independent security analyst told RFI. "The only reason that you heard about this one at all, is because people got killed in it, you don’t hear about all the other operations in which people haven’t been killed."