Afghan Authorities Seemingly Ambivalent Over CIA Bombing

Military Officials: CIA 'On Its Own' in Southern Afghanistan

by Jason Ditz, January 01, 2010

Afghan officials were quick to shrug off questions about the Wednesday Khost bombing, which hit a secretive CIA facility at a US forward operating base and killed seven or eight CIA agents. They said they would not comment, adding that Afghan authorities would play no role in the investigation of the attack.

Reports say the site, initially shrugged off as a “gym,” was actually the central hub of CIA operations in the region, playing a key role not just in Afghanistan but in coordinating CIA drone attacks in Pakistan.

And even though the Afghan Taliban were one of the factions to take credit for the strike, it seems to have been of more immediate value to the Pakistani groups, where CIA drone attacks are the bulk of the direct American influence against them.

As far as operations in Afghanistan go, military officials say the CIA is “on its own,” operating out of US-run forward operating bases but not officially part of the NATO mission and with virtually no oversight from the military.

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