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28 March 2024

CIA bomber shown on TV with Pakistan Taliban leader

Published
By Reuters
A Pakistan television station showed on Saturday what it said was the suicide bomber double agent who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan sitting with the Pakistani Taliban leader, and reported he shared US and Jordanian state secrets with militants.

Private television station AAJ showed a video of the bomber, speaking in English but hardly audible, with Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud beside him.

"Jordanian and American intelligence had offered him millions of dollars in exchange for spying on the mujahideen (holy warriors). But he rejected wealth and joined the mujahideen," said AAJ of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian.

The channel quoted him by his online persona Abu Dujana al-Khorasani as saying that he "shared all secrets of Jordanian and American intelligence with his fellow (militants)".

If the video is authentic, it points to huge intelligence failures for the United States and its key Middle East ally Jordan.  Pakistan would also feel the heat. It is struggling against Mehsud's growing insurgency while facing relentless US pressure to eliminate militant groups that cross its borders to fight in Afghanistan.

 

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