The al Qaeda terror network said its recent attack against a US intelligence base was in retribution for the deaths of several Pakistani Taliban leaders last year. IntelCenter, an organisation specialised in analysing Islamist websites, said Wednesday that al Qaeda claimed the suicide attack last week, which killed seven agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and one Jordanian citizen, was a revenge attack.
According to a statement posted on Islamist websites, the attack avenged the deaths of Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader killed by a US missile strike in August, as well as the deaths of Abi Saleh el-Somali and Abdullah el-Libi. The two other Taliban commanders were killed in a drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan region in December.