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thedrifter
10-30-03, 06:51 AM
CIA operatives killed in Afghanistan Oct 29 2003


Two US CIA operatives have been killed in an ambush while tracking terrorists in Afghanistan, the agency said.

The ambush on Saturday happened on the same day and in the same region as a six-hour gun battle in which coalition aircraft and Afghan militia killed 18 rebel fighters.

Six Afghan militia soldiers were wounded in the fighting, but there were no coalition casualties, the military said. It was unclear whether the two incidents were linked, and the military did not explain why its account of the fighting was delayed by three days.

In Washington, the CIA identified the two men as William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, and Christopher Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego, California. Both were veterans of military special operations forces, the CIA said.

They were "tracking terrorists operating in the region" of Shkin, a village in eastern Afghanistan, when they were killed on Saturday, the CIA said in a statement.

The pair was working for the CIA's Directorate of Operations, which conducts clandestine intelligence-gathering and covert operations.

The agency did not provide details of the ambush or the two operatives' mission.

They were in the remote mountainous region along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding. It also is a stronghold for al Qaida, Taliban and other anti-coalition fighters.

Carlson and Mueller are the third and fourth CIA operatives that the agency has acknowledged have been killed in Afghanistan in the line of duty since the September 11 attacks.

"William Carlson and Christopher Mueller were defined by dedication and courage," CIA Director George Tenet said in a statement. "Their sacrifice for the peoples of the United States and Afghanistan must never be forgotten."

The first CIA casualty, paramilitary officer Johnny Micheal Spann, was killed during an uprising of Taliban and al Qaida prisoners in northern Afghanistan on November 25, 2001.

The second, Helge Boes, died in a training accident in eastern Afghanistan, on February 5, this year.

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Sempers,

Roger
:marine: