Jordan/US - CIA base attack

Suicide bomber blew up CIA agents for "revenge"

Article published on the 2010-01-09 Latest update 2010-01-09 12:12 TU

Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud (L) sits beside a man who is believed to be Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Al-Balawi, the suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan, in a video released 9 January 2010.
Photo: Reuters

A Jordanian man who blew up himself and seven US intelligence agents in Afghanistan was seeking to avenge the death of a Taliban leader by US fire, according to a video filmed before his death and broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV on Saturday.

"We tell [deceased Taliban leader] Baitullah Mehsud we will never forget his blood," the video shows Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi saying. "It is up to us to avenge him in and outside America."

Balawi went on to blow himself up at a US military base in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, on 30 December, killing seven Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers and a top Jordanian intelligence agent who was acting as Balawi's handler.

Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was killed in an attack by US drones in August.

Balawi appears in the video wearing military uniform and holding a weapon. He is joined by a man in an Afghan headscarf, believed to be Baitullah Mehsud's successor at the head of the Pakistan Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Palestinian-born Balawi is believed to have been a triple agent, working for both the Jordanian intelligence agency and Al-Qaeda while apparently co-operating with Western intelligence services.

His attack was the deadliest against US intelligence agents since the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983.