CIA bomber video calls for attacks on U.S.

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan had made a video calling on militants to avenge the death of the Pakistani Taliban leader by carrying out attacks in and outside the United States, al Jazeera said.

A pilotless U.S. drone aircraft strike killed Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud last year.

Al Jazeera reported on its website that the video was left as a message to the United States and its Arab ally Jordan by the bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, in which he tells them: "We say that we will never forget the blood of our Emir Baitullah Mehsud, God's mercy on him."

Balawi blew himself up on December 30 inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well-fortified U.S. compound in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, killing seven CIA officers.

It was the second-most deadly attack in CIA history.

Al Jazeera quotes the former Jordanian doctor as saying it was the obligation of all of Mehsud's fighters "to retaliate for his death in the United States and outside the United States."

Pakistan television station AAJ showed what it said was a video of Balawi sitting with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, and reported he shared U.S. and Jordanian state secrets with militants.

Hakimullah, Mehsud's successor, is leading a Taliban insurgency against Pakistan's pro-American government.