Yesterday's suicide bombing in Afghanistan has taken a devastating toll on a local family. CIA Director Leon Panetta confirmed today that seven employees were killed and six others injured in the bombing at a base in Southeastern Afghanistan.
One of the victims, Harold E. Brown Jr., 37, lived in Fairfax County. Brown had grown up in Massachusetts and earned degrees from Mount Wachusett Community College, The George Washington University and the University of Phoenix, said his father, Harold E. Brown, Sr. The younger Brown served in the Army and remained a major in the Reserves. He is survived by his wife and three children, ages two, 10 and 12.
The CIA has previously acknowledged the deaths of only four other operatives in Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. CIA officer Micheal Spann was killed in a prison uprising in November 2001. He was from Prince William County. In 2003, an agency officer died in a training exercise and two contractors operating out of a CIA base in Shkin district of Paktika province were killed the same year.
Initial reports had indicated that eight Americans were killed when the bomber detonated a suicide vest near the base in Khost.The reason for the discrepancy in the death toll is not clear and Panetta declined to release further details.
