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Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud with suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi
A video grab of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud (left) sitting with a man believed to be Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan. Photograph: Reuters TV/Reuters
A video grab of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud (left) sitting with a man believed to be Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan. Photograph: Reuters TV/Reuters

Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan calls for revenge

This article is more than 14 years old
Video aired posthumously shows former Jordanian militant urging attacks on US to avenge killing of Taliban chief

The suicide bomber who killed eight people at a US base in eastern Afghanistan has called for revenge attacks on US targets in a video aired posthumously on Pakistan television.

Private television station AAJ showed a video purportedly of the bomber Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi with Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud beside him.

Balawi, a Jordanian doctor, said all jihadists must attack US targets to avenge the killing of the Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud by a CIA missile strike in August.

"We will never forget the blood of our emir Baitullah Mehsoud. We will always demand revenge for him inside America and outside," he said in the minute-and-a-half video.

The IntelCenter, a US-based group monitoring Islamist websites, said the video had been released by the Pakistani branch of the Taliban.

Balawi blew himself up at a meeting with seven CIA employees after a Jordanian intelligence officer reportedly took the bomber to Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province.

Balawi was arrested by Jordanian intelligence more than a year ago on suspicion of extremist sympathies, then apparently agreed to support the US in its fight against al-Qaida.

Jordan believed Balawi had reformed and handed him over to the CIA so he could infiltrate al-Qaida in Afghanistan. He was invited to the remote base on the restive border with Pakistan after offering urgent information to help find Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy.

But in the video, Balawi appeared to reject reports that he had ever been employed by US or Jordanian intelligence, stating that he "will not put his religion on the bargaining table and will not sell his religion".

"Jordanian and American intelligence had offered him millions of dollars in exchange for spying on the mujahideen. But he rejected wealth and joined the mujahideen," Reuters reported the AAJ channel as saying.

The channel said Balawi had "shared all secrets of Jordanian and American intelligence with his fellow [militants]".

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