Suicide Bomber Kills 8 Americans In Afghanistan

Not military personnel but CIA operatives.

The bomber managed to slip past security at Forward Operating Base Chapman in the eastern province of Khost before detonating an explosive belt in what one U.S. official described as a room used as a fitness center. The blast also wounded eight people, several of them seriously, U.S. government officials said.

It was not immediately clear how the assailant was able to infiltrate the U.S.-run post, which serves as an operations and surveillance center for the CIA near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. U.S. sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians, adding that most of them were probably CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian was also killed, the sources said.

...The CIA has been quietly bolstering its ranks in Afghanistan in recent weeks, mirroring the surge of military troops in the country. Agency officers coordinated the initial U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan in 2001 and have since provided hundreds of spies, paramilitary operatives and analysts in the region for roles ranging from counterterrorism to counter-narcotics. The agency also operates the remote-control aircraft used in aerial strikes on suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the lawless tribal provinces on the Pakistani side of the border.

First the underwear bomber gets through and now this. A very bad time for the CIA.

posted by DrewM. at 08:50 PM

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