As attention remained focused on the poor Arabian Peninsula nation of Yemen as the new hunting ground of al-Qaida, the Osama bin Laden terror group sent out a statement on Islamic Web sites claiming it had masterminded the suicide bomb killings of seven U.S. Central Intelligence Agency employees in Afghanistan.

The Dec. 30 attack occurred in Khost province, dealing one of the worst blows for the U.S. agency. The killer allegedly was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor and a double agent who had been recruited as a counter-terrorism intelligence source.

In the al-Qaida statement, Mustafa Abu Yazid, its commander of operations in Afghanistan and No. 3 in the hierarchy, said the attack had avenged the deaths of Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed last August in a drone attack, and two other al-Qaida operatives.

Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, who also died in the attack, was reported to be an operative working closely with Balawi, who, CNN reported, was from the same hometown as onetime Iraqi al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Abu Yazid's al-Qaida statement claimed that Balawi, also known as Abu Dujana Khorasani, was a noted Islamist author and a preacher on Jihadi Web sites.

"We ask God to bless the people who follow your path, Abu Dujana. Let them know that your brothers … will not have peace of mind until they slaughter the Americans and let the Islamic nation be proud for having men like you among its sons," the statement said.

While other groups also claimed responsibility for the killings, it was notable the al-Qaida statement was issued in the name of its Afghan commander, perhaps to show it remains a force in that country, refuting contrary analyses by some experts.

The Khost attack came on the heels of the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to ignite an explosive compound aboard a Detroit-bound commercial jetliner on Christmas Day. The claim of responsibility for that incident also was made by al-Qaida, this time by the Yemen-based "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula."

What was more disconcerting about the attacks on the CIA employees in Afghanistan, some of whom were described as top U.S. experts on al-Qaida, was what U.S. intelligence officials told The Times of London.

The officials said they believe the attack was planned with the help of the Haqqanis whose Taliban group is suspected of protecting Osama bin Laden.

"There is no way this operation would have occurred in Khost without the knowledge and active support of Jalaluddin Haqqani and/or his son (Sirajuddin)," said Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA unit tracking bin Laden. "They and their organization own the area, and nothing occurs that would impact their tribe or its allies without their knowledge or OK."

Such an assessment brings neighboring Pakistan into the picture as the United States believes the Haqqani group is using that country's tribal North Waziristan region as a sanctuary to launch attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Khost is located near that border region where the United States suspects bin Laden is holed up, the Times of London reported.

What complicates the issue is that Pakistan thus far has not gone after the Haqqani Taliban group as sought by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which needs Pakistan's cooperation for the success of its Afghan strategy that calls for sending an additional 30,000 U.S. troops.

The Times of London quoted a former CIA officer as saying that the agency has taped evidence of a Pakistani army officer giving a tipoff to the Haqqanis about a raid and also of a Pakistani intelligence official saying the "Haqqanis are our guys."

During the weekend, a video seen on Arabic news channel al-Jazeera showed Balawi, or Abu Dujana, vowing to avenge the death of Baitullah Mehsud, CNN reported. The date of Dec. 20, 2009, was seen on the video, which would mean it was made prior to the Dec. 30 Khost attack or the attempted Christmas Day jet liner attack. The video showed Balawi appearing next to Hakimullah Mehsud, the current head of the Pakistani Taliban.

"It will remain that we take revenge (for Baitullah's death) in America and outside America," a CNN translation quoted Balawi as saying in Arabic on the video. The video was released by the Pakistani Taliban, CNN reported, quoting IntelCenter, a think tank researching terrorist groups.

Whatever the claims, CNN said if Balawi knew about the Christmas Day jetliner incident, it might mean there's closer communication between the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida than had been suspected earlier.

The two December incidents may produce other conclusions, but what they do show, says The New York Times, are that the United States continues to face problems in understanding the intentions of al-Qaida and its affiliates.

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