Suicide bomber infiltrates secret American base and kills eight CIA agents in massive blow to U.S intelligence
Posted To The Web: Thursday, December 31, 2009 - Mail Foreign Service


A suicide bomber penetrated a foreign army base in Afghanistan and killed eight CIA employees yesterday.
Meanwhile four Canadian troops and a recently-engaged journalist on her first war assignment died in a separate attack.
The Taliban claimed the attacker was a sympathiser from the Afghan army, but the country's Defence Ministry said no Afghan soldiers were involved in the attack or stationed at the site in southeastern Khost province.

U.S. officials said the dead Americans were CIA employees but declined to comment on the attacker's nationality or status.
The explosion casts a long shadow over Western plans to bolster the Afghan army and police, in order to eventually hand over security and bring their own troops home.
If an Afghan army official turned on the foreign troops and officials who are meant to be mentoring and partnering them, after a series of similar incidents this year, it will raise tough questions about trust and loyalty.

If he was not an Afghan soldier visiting or stationed on Forward Operating Base Chapman, then U.S. concerns about security controls will be even more grave, after a year that has been the deadliest of the eight-year war for foreign troops.

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The CIA has also been expanding its presence in the country, stepping up strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda militants along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, although its role has been criticised by rights groups and Afghans.


The site of the suicide attack is near the Pakistan border, in one of the areas where the Taliban insurgency is strongest. Security in the region was stepped up on Thursday.

Asked how the attacker launched the assault in a foreign military base, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid replied: 'Since the man was an officer, he had not much difficulties.'

The four Canadian soldiers and Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb near the southern city of Kandahar.

The recently-engaged Miss Lang was on her first assignment in Afghanistan.

Eight CIA agents were killed in a separate attack, during a suicide bombing at a military base in south-eastern Afghanistan.
The explosion was at a military base in Khost province, near the border with Pakistan.

'We can confirm that there was an explosion in Khost province and eight Americans have been killed,' said a U.S. official in Kabul.

Several others, none of them U.S. or Nato troops, were wounded in the explosion at Forward Operating Base Chapman, defence officials said.

The CIA has been expanding its presence in Afghanistan in a bid to stem Taliban gains.
U.S. officials said they could not provide details pending notification of the agents' families.
Miss Lang, 34, had only arrived on December 11 for her first assignment in Afghanistan.

'The soldiers were conducting a community security patrol in order to gather information on the pattern of life and maintain security in the area,' Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, commander of coalition forces in Kandahar, said.
Miss Lang's colleagues were devastated by the news of the award-winning reporter's death. She was recently engaged to be married.

'She was one of those journalists who always wanted to get to the bottom of every story so this was an important trip for her,' said colleague Colette Derworiz.

The attack was the second in Kandahar in a week. On December 24, eight people including a child were killed when a man detonated a horse-drawn cart laden with explosives outside a guest house frequented by foreigners.
Attacks in Afghanistan this year have spiralled to their highest levels since the Taliban was overthrown by U.S. and British-led forces in late 2001.

In October the Taliban demonstrated its reach by targeting United Nations employees at a guest house in Kabul, killing five and wounding several others.

'Beheaded'
Today Afghanistan police said militants have beheaded six Afghans for cooperating with government authorities.
Juma Gul Hamit, police chief of Uruzgan province in south-central Afghanistan, says the men were beheaded Thursday near the provincial capital of Tarin Kot.
Hamit defended the victims, saying they were not involved in any anti-government activities.
He says a seventh Afghan man is being treated for serious neck injuries.

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The CIA messed up on this one, big time!!!