Afghan bomber turned radical due to US Mid-East policies, reports say

The Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA operatives at a US facility in Afghanistan was a long-time moderate who turned violently against the United States because of its foreign policies in the Middle East, a variety of reports say.

Time reported this week that Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, recruited by Jordan as a double-agent to gather information on suspected terrorist cells, was as recently as 2007 a "useful asset whose work helped the Americans target al-Qaeda leaders."

In other words, Balawi was once a useful ally to US interests in helping capture the radicals he eventually sided with.

Time added that Jordanian officials said Balawi's "outrage at the high number of civilian casualties inflicted in the resulting strikes may be the factor that prompted him to go back to the other side."

The reference is apparently to US military strikes and drone attacks on alleged al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- among other Muslim nations -- which have led to the unintended deaths of many of innocent civilians.

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