Qaeda says CIA attack 'revenge' for drone killings: SITE

Al-Qaeda said the suicide bombing at a US base in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA agents was "revenge" for the deaths of top militants in US drone strikes in Pakistan, the US monitoring group SITE said on Thursday.

Al-Qaeda said the suicide bombing at a US base in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA agents was "revenge" for the deaths of top militants in US drone strikes in Pakistan, the US monitoring group SITE said on Thursday.

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A Jordanian identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was said to be a triple agent, blew himself up
at the base in Khost on December 30 in the deadliest attack against the CIA since 1983.

The head of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, said the bomber wrote in his will that the attack was revenge for "our righteous martyrs" and named a number of top militants killed in US drone attacks, SITE reported.

These included Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan's Taliban blamed for a wave of deadly attacks including the killing of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

Mehsud was killed when a US missile slammed into his father-in-law's house in August last year.

Another militant named was Abu Saleh al-Somali, described as part of Al-Qaeda's core leadership and responsible for plotting attacks in Europe and the United States, who was killed in a drone strike in the North Waziristan area in December last year.

The Al-Qaeda statement surfaced after another round of US drone strikes left 11 militants dead near Pakistan's Afghan
border yesterday.