The CIA vowed Thursday to avenge the deaths of seven officers in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan and to investigate security breaches that allowed the second deadliest attack in agency history. The Taliban claimed the attacker was a sympathizer from the Afghan army who detonated a vest of explosives at a meeting with CIA workers Wednesday. An Afghan was also killed and six CIA employees were wounded, US officials said. “This deadly attack was carried out by a valorous Afghan army member,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters. The chief of the CIA base was among the dead, according to a former intelligence official. “We fully expected to lose agents but to lose so many all at once is a huge shock to the system and is very troubling,” he said. The attack took place inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well fortified base in Khost province near the southeastern border with Pakistan, where the CIA has been stepping up operations to battle a resurgent Taliban. CIA Director Leon Panetta said the deaths would not deter the agency. “This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations,” a US intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. Also on Wednesday, five Canadians - four soldiers and a journalist - were killed when their armored vehicle was hit by a bomb in southern Kandahar province, the Canadian Defense Ministry said. The Afghan Defense Ministry rejected the Taliban's claim that an Afghan soldier was involved in the attack and said none were stationed at the base. But a spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan acknowledged Afghan security forces were working there.
