The big question in CIA deaths
The CIA is vowing to retaliate for the deaths of seven of its workers in Afghanistan. Reports suggest the suicide bomber infiltrated the very nerve center for the CIA in Afghanistan. The attack happened at a desolate U.S. base in Khost province, not far from the border with Pakistan.
CNN's Atia Abawi in Afghanistan looks at the basic question: How did someone walk into this U.S. facility and blow himself up?
Abawi: That's a question that's not being answered by American officials here in Afghanistan at the moment. What we are hearing is from the Taliban. It comes from a statement. They are saying that they actually infiltrated the Afghan National Army, and that it was actually an Afghan soldier who was able to make it on that American base, able to make it into the gymnasium, where he detonated his suicide vest, killing the seven employees of the CIA. FULL POST
Happy New Year from Afghanistan
Members of the U.S. military send out New Year greetings from Bagram Air Field to their family and friends, originally featured on AC360° with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/01/story2.ireport.newyears.jpg caption="Cpl. Cruz with the 'chemlight' New Year's ball"] Meanwhile, troops at Camp Leatherneck Marine base in Afghanistan celebrated the new year with a ball drop of their own.
They created their ball out of plywood and chemical glow sticks and then raised it up on a crane. Christopher Aragon submitted the iReport of the unique New Year celebrations; he's been in Afghanistan for two months. He said it took the group about four hours to make the ball. See more of the photos
Intel officer: CIA officers' deaths will be avenged
An American intelligence official vowed Thursday that the United States would avenge a suspected terrorist attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of seven CIA officers. "This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations," the intelligence official vowed.
Former CIA official Robert Richer called it "the greatest loss of life for the Central Intelligence Agency since the Beirut Embassy bombing" in 1983, which killed eight agents. Flags at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, flew at half-staff Thursday.
Suicide car bomb at Pakistan volleyball match
Update: 2:26 p.m. ET: The number of dead is now at least 75.
Update: 1:07 p.m. ET: At least 60 are dead and 60 injured in the attacks.
A suicide car bomb exploded Friday in the middle of a group of men playing volleyball in northwest Pakistan, killing 30 and wounding 52, district police officials told CNN. The terror attack happened in a residential neighborhood in the Lakki Marwat district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, police said. Some of the casualties were residents from houses around the volleyball court, district police Chief Mohammed Ayub Khan told CNN.
Volleyball is a popular sport in the area, and more than 200 people were watching the game when the bomb went off, the police chief said.
