Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi | |
|---|---|
| Born | Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi (1977-12-25)25 December 1977 |
| Died | 30 December 2009(2009-12-30) (aged 32) |
| Cause of death | Suicide bombing |
| Occupations | Doctor, suicide bomber |
| Years active | 2009 |
| Organization |  Al-Qaeda |
| Known for | Suicide bombing atCamp Chapman |
| Movement | Al-Qaeda |
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi (25 December 1977 – 30 December 2009) was aJordanian doctor and atriple agentsuicide bomber, who was loyal toIslamist extremists ofal-Qaeda, and who carried out theCamp Chapman attack, which was asuicide attack against aCIA base nearKhost,Afghanistan on 30 December 2009.
An Afghan security official gave al-Balawi's name asHamman Khalil Abu Mallal al-Balawi.[1] The Arab newspaperThe National referred to him asHomam Khaleel Mohammad Abu Mallal.[2] He also used thealiasAbu Dujana al-Khurasani[1] orDujana al-Khurasani when writing forjihadi websites.[2] Hajj Yacoub, a self-proclaimed spokesman for thePakistani Taliban, identified him asHamman Khalil Mohammed.[3]
Al-Balawi was born inKuwait on 25 December 1977.[2] His ancestral roots werePalestinian, his tribe originating from theBeersheba region, now located in theNegev desert ofIsrael.[4] He grew up in a middle-class family of nine other children, including an identical twin brother, and lived in Kuwait untilIraq's 1990 invasion of the country, when the family moved toJordan. He graduated with honors from anAmman high school.[5]
Al-Balawi studiedmedicine for six years in Turkey atIstanbul University and graduated in 2002. He also received medical training at theUniversity of Jordan Hospital and at the Islamic hospital run by Jordan’sIslamic Brotherhood in Amman. He was married to Dafinah Bairak (Defne Bayrak), a Turkish journalist and translator, with whom he had two children.[6] They lived in the lower-income Amman suburb of Jabal Nuzhah.[2]
Al-Balawi had a history of supportingviolent Islamist causes.[7] He was tagged by theNational Intelligence Organization of Turkey as having a relation with theGreat Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front.[8] It is not clear whether this information was shared with other intelligence organizations. According to theSITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites, he was a well-known contributor toal-Hesbah, an online forum run by Islamist extremists.[7] He also ran his own Islamist blog.[9]
Al-Balawi was arrested by the Jordanian security service in late 2007 and was believed to have been transformed into adouble agent loyal to the U.S. and to Jordan.[9][10] According to Western government officials, al-Balawi had been recruited by Jordan'sGeneral Intelligence Directorate and taken to Afghanistan. The Jordanian intelligence service is one of the CIA's closest allies in the Middle East.[11]
According to intelligence officials, al-Balawi had been invited toFOB Chapman after claiming to have information related to senioral-Qaeda leaderAyman al-Zawahiri.[12] He was not closely searched because of his perceived value as someone who could infiltrate the ranks of senior al-Qaeda leaders. The CIA had come to trust the informant, and the Jordanian spy agency vouched for him, according to officials.[11]
According to a Jordanian report, al-Balawi was an "informant, who offered dangerous and important information which the authorities said they had to take seriously", but not recruited by the CIA or Jordanian intelligence. He was "only a trusted source who went onto the base without inspection" the official said.[13]
Al-Balawi appeared in a video released after his death and was shown saying that the attack was carried out in revenge for the 2009 killing of thePakistani Taliban leaderBaitullah Mehsud.[14]
In his last statement issued byAl-Qaeda's media wingAs-Sahab, he revealed that Jordanian intelligence was co-operating with the CIA to kill or capture seniorAl-Qaeda and other militant group leaders. He further claimed that the Jordanian Intelligence Directorate assisted the CIA in killingImad Mughniyah, a seniorHizbullah militant killed inLebanon, andAbdullah Azzam, senior Afghan jihad leader, as well as assisting them to eliminateAbu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the head ofal-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the predecessor to theIslamic State.[15]
After Al-Balawi's death, his wife Defne Bayrak was interrogated for almost five hours by Istanbul Security Directorate (Turkish police).[16] According to the leaked information, the first question asked during the interrogation was how they had met each other to which she replied that they met in a chat room on a website that she accessed to learn Arabic. It is also said that CIA officials brought a file, containing information on al-Balawi and questions to ask during interrogation, and gave it to Istanbul Anti-Terror Branch Directorate.[17] However, Istanbul Security Directorate denied any CIA involvement.[18] Later, she gave extensive interviews toNewsweek Turkey andCNN.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][excessive citations] She also complained to The Association of Human Rights and Solidarity of Oppressed People in Turkey about being constantly bothered by reporters.[citation needed]
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)[permanent dead link]{{cite news}}:|author= has generic name (help)| International | |
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