Clinton, Jordanian counterpart to meet Friday
AFP
WASHINGTON - Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Jawdeh will meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton here Friday, the Jordanian embassy said Wednesday, amid reports that a Jordanian was behind a deadly attack on the CIA in Afghanistan.
The embassy said the two top diplomats would discuss the Arab-Israeli peace process as well as bilateral relations, but did not elaborate.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is investigating an attack December 30 at a base in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, in which seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian officer were killed.
Jihadist websites boasted Tuesday that Jordanian Humam Khalil Mohammed al-Balawi was an Al-Qaeda double agent who tricked Western intelligence services for months before carrying out the suicide bombing.
Jordanian intelligence had brought him to eastern Afghanistan hoping he would help hunt down elusive Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US media said.
But instead he blew himself up, killing eight people, including his Jordanian handler, a top intelligence officer and member of the royal family, marking the CIA's worst single loss of life since a Beirut bombing in 1983.
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Jihadist websites boasted Tuesday that Jordanian Humam Khalil Mohammed al-Balawi was an Al-Qaeda double agent who tricked Western intelligence services for months before carrying out the suicide bombing.
Jordanian intelligence had brought him to eastern Afghanistan hoping he would help hunt down elusive Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US media said.
But instead he blew himself up, killing eight people, including his Jordanian handler, a top intelligence officer and member of the royal family, marking the CIA's worst single loss of life since a Beirut bombing in 1983.
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