HONOLULU — President Barack Obama honoured on Thursday seven Americans killed in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan, saying senior Al Qaeda leaders were now “under more pressure than ever before.”The CIA operatives were killed a year ago by a Jordanian informant who gained access to one of the Central Intelligence Agency’s major field bases and set off explosives rigged to his body.
“As we mark the first anniversary of their sacrifice at Khost, this is the work to which we recommit ourselves today,” Obama said in a statement. “We will ensure that our dedicated intelligence professionals have the training and tools they need to meet the missions we ask of them.”
The December 30, 2009 attack on the CIA base in Khost, near the lawless border with Pakistan, was a devastating blow for the spy agency and the second deadliest single assault in CIA history.
“Today, Al-Qaeda’s senior leadership is under more pressure than ever before and is hunkered down in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Obama insisted. “We are relentlessly pursuing our mission to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat that terrorist organization.”
