JEFFREY BROWN:
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency confirmed that seven CIA employees were killed and six others wounded in an attack on a base in Afghanistan yesterday.
A suicide bomber penetrated Camp Chapman in the southeastern Khost district, detonating his vests filled with explosives. The names of those killed have not been released by the CIA. The Associated Press reported that among the dead was the chief of the agency's host base. She was described as a mother of three.
The attack was one of the worst ever carried out against the CIA. Prior to this, four known agency operatives had been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
In a message to employees today, CIA Director Leon Panetta said: "Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism. We owe them our deepest gratitude."
The site of the suicide attack is not far from the Pakistan border, one of the areas where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.
Yesterday was also the deadliest day for Canadians in Afghanistan in two-and-a-half years. Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist were killed in a roadside bombing while on patrol in southern Kandahar Province.
BRIG. GEN. DANIEL MENARD, commander of coalition forces, Kandahar: On behalf of all the soldiers, airmen, sailors, and special operators of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, I offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of our fallen.
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