KABUL (AFP) – Al-Qaeda hailed the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan as "revenge" for the deaths of top militants in US drone strikes in Pakistan, Islamist websites said on Thursday.

A Jordanian doctor said to have been a triple agent blew himself up at a US military base in Khost near the Pakistani border on December 30, the deadliest attack against the CIA since 1983.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility a day later. A Pakistani Taliban commander subsequently claimed his faction carried out the attack to avenge the drone attacks that killed its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, last August.

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US media described the US base in Khost as a key "anti-terror" facility that oversaw the drone strikes targeting Al-Qaeda and Taliban on the Pakistani border and as a centre for recruiting and debriefing informants.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100107/pl_afp/afghanistanunrestusciaqaeda_20100107145819