WASHINGTON - The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officials and a Jordanian military officer last week in Afghanistan was a Jordanian double-agent, US officials said. The informant was working covertly in eastern Afghanistan and already provided the US with what one official said was actionable intelligence when the agents were baited, The Washington Post reported Monday. Besides the seven CIA employees, the bombing at a CIA outpost in Khost province last week killed a Jordanian intelligence official assigned to work with the informant-turned-suicide bomber, two former US government officials briefed on the matter said. The alleged bomber, identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, apparently wasnt searched thoroughly enough before being brought to the compound, said one of the former US government officials briefed on the matter. He was someone who had already worked with us, the official told the Post, saying the informant was jointly handled by US and Jordanian intelligence agencies. US intelligence officials declined to comment to the Post on the death of the Jordanian officer or the role Jordan is playing in the region. We have a close partnership with the Jordanians on counter-terrorism matters, a US counter-terrorism official said. The bomber had been recruited by the Jordanian intelligence service and taken to Afghanistan to infiltrate Al-Qaeda by posing as a foreign jihadi, the officials said. But in a turnabout, the supposed informant strapped explosives to his body and blew himself up at a meeting Wednesday at the CIAs Forward Operating Base Chapman in the southeastern province of Khost. The attack at the CIA base dealt a devastating blow to the spy agencys operations against militants in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, eliminating an elite team using an informant with strong jihadi credentials. The attack further delayed hope of penetrating Al-Qaedas upper ranks, and also seemed potent evidence of militants ability to strike back against their American pursuers, according to The New York Times. It could also jeopardise relations between the CIA and the Jordanian spy service, which officials said had vouched for the would-be informant. The Jordanian service, called the General Intelligence Directorate, for years has been one of the CIAs closest and most useful allies in the Middle East, the newspaper noted.