The Dec. 30 suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by an al-Qaeda double agent from Jordan, NBC News reported Monday.
Western intelligence officials said Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor and al-Qaeda sympathizer from the same Jordanian hometown of militant Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was responsible for the attack, not a member of the Afghan National Army as initially reported.
The attack killed seven CIA agents.
Jordanian officials arrested al-Balawi more than a year ago, but believed he had been reformed and set him up as a double agent to infiltrate al-Qaeda and meet Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror group’s number two.
Also killed in last week’s attack was al-Balawi’s Jordanian intelligence handler, Sharif Ali bin Zeid, according to Jordanian press accounts. Bin Zeid was a senior Jordanian intelligence officer. He was also a member of the Jordanian royal family and a first cousin to the king, according to the NBC report.
The report that al-Balawi was a double agent comes on the same day the Washington Post reported that Jordan is emerging as a key ally to the CIA in its counterterrorism operations.
“[Jordanians] know the bad guy’s culture, his associates, and more [than anyone] about the network to which he belongs,” said Jamie Smith, a former CIA officer. Smith praised Jordanians for their “expertise with radicalized militant groups and Shia/Sunni culture.”