Security breach: Afghan employee kills US citizen at Kabul CIA base

Motivation of killer ‘under investigation’; Taliban commander claims responsibility.

KABUL:

An Afghan employee of the US government opened fire inside a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) office in Kabul on Sunday evening, killing an American and injuring a second, US and Afghan officials said, in the second major breach of embassy security in two weeks.

The killing adds to a sense of insecurity already heightened by a 20 hour-siege of the diplomatic district in mid-September, and the assassination a week later of the top government peace envoy, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

The CIA compound inside the Ariana hotel is one of the most heavily guarded in Kabul, and has been off-limits – along with the road that runs beside it – for almost a decade, since shortly after the Taliban’s fall from power in 2001.

It also lies at the heart of the capital’s heavily guarded military, political and diplomatic district, a virtual “green zone” that is almost impossible for ordinary Afghans to enter.

It was not clear if the US citizens were victims of a rogue employee who had been won over to the insurgent cause, or just the escalation of an argument in a city where tensions are high and many people carry guns. There are precedents for both.

The “lone attacker” was killed, and the injured US citizen was taken to a military hospital, US embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall said.

“There was a shooting incident at an annex of the US embassy in Kabul last night involving an Afghan employee who was killed. The motivation for the attack is still under investigation at this time,” Sundwall said.

Sundwall declined comment on whether the annex housed the CIA, but Kabul Police Chief Ayub Salangi said there had been an exchange of fire at the Ariana hotel, which he described as a CIA office. He declined further comment on what happened in an area where access is restricted even for Afghan forces.

The Taliban

The shooting follows a string of attacks by Afghan security forces against their Nato-led mentors carried out either by “rogue” soldiers and police or by insurgents who have infiltrated security forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid could not immediately be reached for comment, but a senior Taliban commander reached by phone from Pakistan said the man had secretly joined the insurgents after a group of Taliban approached him to remind him “of his moral and religious duty as an Afghan”.

“He used the enemy’s weapons against the enemy and that’s what we have been doing everywhere in Afghanistan,” said the Taliban commander, who is operating in Afghanistan and asked for anonymity for security reasons.

“This place is at the heart of Kabul and we wanted to tell the Americans that we can chase them anywhere,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2011.