Mon, Jan 11, 2010 page7

• Bomber leaves video urging more attacks

  SUICIDE ATTACK The Jordanian militant who killed CIA agents at a base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30 called for revenge over the death of Taliban leaders

  • THE OBSERVER
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  A Jordanian suicide bomber who carried out a devastating attack in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA agents and one Jordanian intelligence officer recorded a “martyrdom” video.

  In the grainy video the bomber, former Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, promises that US forces will suffer further attacks and says that he was motivated to avenge the death of the Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

  “We will never forget the blood of our Emir Baitullah Mehsud, God’s mercy upon him,” Balawi said as he sat next to the current senior Taliban leader in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, who succeeded the slain militant.

  In the video Balawi is wearing dark green combat fatigues and is heavily bearded, while Hakimullah Mehud has an assault rifle on his lap.

  Balawi’s attack on Dec. 30 sent a shock wave through US intelligence services. It was the worst attack against the CIA since the US embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983. It happened after intelligence operatives agreed to meet Balawi, believing he was working with them to track down al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

  Instead Balawi detonated a bomb, killing himself, the CIA agents and a man supposed to be his Jordanian intelligence handler.

  Speculation has been rife about whether Balawi was a triple agent from the beginning or changed sides during his work for the CIA. But in the video he dismissed the idea that he had ever worked with the Americans. That supports similar statements made by his widow to reporters. Balawi said in the video that the US had offered him “millions of dollars,” but that he had remained pure in the cause of Islamic jihad.

  “The jihadist who follows God’s way does not put his religion up for auction,” he said.

  Balawi said he wanted to target the drone teams, controlled by the CIA, which are often used to target militants in aerial missile strikes. Such a strike killed Baitullah Mehsud last August in the Pakistan tribal region of South Waziristan. It was followed by a huge Pakistani army operation in the region aimed at driving out militants that saw hundreds of people killed and thousands forced to flee their homes.

  Balawi said there would be further attacks against US targets and those who operated the drones.

  “This jihadi attack will be the first of the revenge operations against the Americans and their drone teams,” he said.

  Attacking jihadis only motivated them further, he said.

  “We never forget our martyrs, we never forget our prisoners,” he said.

  The video, which surfaced on Saturday morning and has been broadcast on the Arabic satellite TV station al-Jazeera, will raise further questions in an already fierce debate as to how Balawi was able to meet so many CIA officers without being adequately checked. Reports have claimed that he was recommended to the CIA by Jordanian intelligence and that he led a double life, posing as a very useful informant while he plotted his spectacular attack.

  Meanwhile, details have emerged about Balawi’s attack. The Washington Post said on Saturday that he was driven on to the US base in a red station wagon and emerged with one hand in his pocket.

  As he was about to be patted down by a security official, he triggered a bomb, which was packed with thousands of steel pellets, the paper said..
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