Eight US Civilians Killed in Afghanistan Blast

Eight U.S. Civilians Killed in Afghanistan Blast (Update1)

Update Dec 31 9pm

The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote base in south-eastern Afghanistan was being courted as an informant and had been invited onto the base, according to a report.

Update Dec 31 7pm

Eva Golinger: At least eight US citizens were killed on a CIA operations base in Afghanistan on Wednesday … a suicide bomber infiltrated Forward Operating Base (FOL) Chapman located in the eastern province of Khost, which was a CIA center of operations and surveillance. Official sources in Washington have confirmed that the eight dead were all civilian employees and CIA contractors.

Fifteen days ago, five US citizens working for a US government contractor, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), were also killed in an explosion at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Gardez. That same day, another bomb exploded outside the DAI offices in Kabul, although no serious injuries resulted.

Update Dec 31  11 am

The bomber struck inside what one U.S. official described as the fitness center of the heavily guarded U.S.-run post, which serves as an operations and surveillance center for the CIA.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and said the bomber was an Afghan National Army officer who had decided to join insurgents in attacking the United States.

Update 10pm Rueters

U.S. officials said the dead Americans — killed in a suicide bombing on a military base in southeastern Khost province on Wednesday — were CIA agents.

Update 8pm fromUPI

9 die in CIA facility blast in Afghanistan

Eight people were wounded, several seriously, in the explosion, officials said. Several sources confirmed to the Post the deceased and wounded were civilians, adding that most likely were CIA employees or contractors.

Update 5pm from UPI

While all of the dead were reported to be Americans, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan said none were soldiers and the attack was not on a military base, but at a facility tied to the U.S. Embassy.

December 30, 2009, 03:30 PM EST

Original at Bloomberg

By Tony Capaccio

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Eight U.S. civilians were killed today in a blast at an American military base in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Almarah Belk said the explosion took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province. Belk said she didn’t know what installations or agencies are located at the base.

The U.S. has been expanding the ranks of civilian aid experts in Afghanistan in parallel with the surge of military reinforcements aimed at the Taliban insurgency.

NATO forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician said the nature of the explosion is being investigated. The Associated Press cited a U.S. official in Washington as saying the Americans were killed by an attacker wearing a suicide-bomb vest.

Khost is located in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan