The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian officer in Afghanistan Dec. 20 said in a video taped before his death that the attack was revenge for the killing of a Pakistani militant leader.
In the video, Hammam Khalil al-Balawi, who blew himself up in a Central Intelligence Agency compound in Khost, said all jihadists who had been sheltered by Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistani leader Baitullah Mehsud had an obligation to strike U.S. targets, according to an e-mailed statement today from Alexandria, Virginia-based IntelCenter, which tracks Islamist videos.
Mehsud was killed last year by a CIA drone strike in the mountains of western Pakistan. The exact date of his death isn’t known. Pakistani authorities blamed him for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as well as suicide bombings.
Al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor who wrote virulent anti- Western comments on radical Web sites, was being managed by Jordanian and U.S. intelligence officers who thought he could help them infiltrate al-Qaeda’s leadership, a former U.S. intelligence officer said.
In the video, he sat next to the Pakistani Taliban’s new leader, or emir, Hakimullah Mehsud, IntelCenter said. The video was released today by the Pakistani Taliban, and not by as- Sahab, the media unit of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, it said.
“The TTP and al-Qaeda have a close relationship and in all likelihood al-Qaeda was involved at some level in the operation,” IntelCenter said. “However, the release of the video with TTP Emir Hakimullah Mehsud firmly places the attack under the TTP banner.”
In the video, Hammam Khalil al-Balawi, who blew himself up in a Central Intelligence Agency compound in Khost, said all jihadists who had been sheltered by Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistani leader Baitullah Mehsud had an obligation to strike U.S. targets, according to an e-mailed statement today from Alexandria, Virginia-based IntelCenter, which tracks Islamist videos.
Mehsud was killed last year by a CIA drone strike in the mountains of western Pakistan. The exact date of his death isn’t known. Pakistani authorities blamed him for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as well as suicide bombings.
Al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor who wrote virulent anti- Western comments on radical Web sites, was being managed by Jordanian and U.S. intelligence officers who thought he could help them infiltrate al-Qaeda’s leadership, a former U.S. intelligence officer said.
In the video, he sat next to the Pakistani Taliban’s new leader, or emir, Hakimullah Mehsud, IntelCenter said. The video was released today by the Pakistani Taliban, and not by as- Sahab, the media unit of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, it said.
“The TTP and al-Qaeda have a close relationship and in all likelihood al-Qaeda was involved at some level in the operation,” IntelCenter said. “However, the release of the video with TTP Emir Hakimullah Mehsud firmly places the attack under the TTP banner.”
Where is the video link? Everyone wants to see the video since its the peoples free right to view a video and judge for themselves how to think. Where is the freedom, we can find American attack videos everywhere, but why are we not allowed to see the other side?
ReplyDelete