US intelligence officials believe the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin Laden’s inner circle, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence.
The attack, carried out by a Jordanian triple-agent whom the CIA believed was about to divulge the whereabouts of al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqani network, US officials believe. The powerful Taliban faction is thought to be shielding bin Laden.
The suicide bombing by Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, 36, one of the deadliest attacks against the CIA in its history and the most lethal for 25 years, has also significantly increased tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan because of Islamabad’s repeated failure to target the Haqqanis.
The Haqqanis operate and largely control a large swath of territory on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border near the Afghan town of Khost, a Taliban hotbed where the CIA officials were killed at a remote agency base on December 30.
It is also the area where the U.S. believes bin Laden is hiding, with the help of the Haqqanis and their Pakistani guardians. One former CIA bin Laden hunter told The Times of London that the CIA has in its possession electronic intercepts of a Pakistani Army officer tipping the Haqqanis off to a raid; and another in which a member of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, boasts that the “Haqqanis are our guys.”
Pakistan has ignored repeated U.S. demands to target the strongholds of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the son of Jalaluddin, a former legendary Mujahidin commander who was once a U.S. ally during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The network is said to be behind several audacious attacks, including the July 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit tracking bin Laden, said it is inconceivable that the CIA attack could have been carried out without the prior knowledge of the Haqqanis.
“There is no way this operation would have occurred in Khost without the knowledge and active support of Jalaluddin Haqqani and/or his son,” said Scheuer.
“They and their organization own the area – and especially right round Khost – and nothing occurs that would impact their tribe or its allies without their knowledge or okay. Both men, moreover, would be delighted to help bin Laden in any way they can.”
To read more, go to The Times of London.