The Jordanian doctor arrived in a red station wagon that came directly from Pakistan and sped through checkpoints at a CIA base in Afghanistan before stopping at an improvised interrogation center. Outside stood one of the CIA’s top experts on al-Qaeda, ready to greet the doctor and hear him describe a way to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s No. 2 and a man at the top of U.S. target lists.
The Jordanian, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, exited the car with one hand in his pocket, according to the accounts of several U.S. officials briefed on the incident. A U.S. security guard approached him to conduct a pat-down search and asked him to remove his hand. Instead, al-Balawi triggered a switch.
A sharp “CLMMMP” coincided with a brief flash and a small puff of smoke as thousands of steel pellets shredded glass, metal, concrete and flesh in every direction.
A moment that CIA officials in Washington and Afghanistan had hoped would lead to a significant breakthrough in the fight against al-Qaeda instead became the most grievous single blow against the agency in the counterterrorism war.
Virtually everyone within sight of the suicide bomb died, including the CIA al-Qaeda expert; a 30-year-old CIA analyst; an interpreter; two other CIA officers; the two contract guards; the Jordanian’s handler; and the car’s driver. At least six others were wounded, including the CIA’s second-in-command inside Afghanistan, who is reportedly fighting for his life.
On Saturday, al-Balawi was shown in a video saying that the attack was carried out in revenge for the 2009 killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, The New York Times reported.
He was shown sitting beside a man whom a Pakistani news report identified as Hakimullah Mehsud, a young militant who took the reins of the Pakistani Taliban after Baitullah Mehsud’s death. The image supports Taliban claims that al-Balawi had support among the most senior militants in the country.
VideoListen to bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi.
