CIA officer killed in Afghan prison revolt
( 2001-11-29 09:23 ) (8 )

An officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was killed in a prison revolt near Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the US spy agency said Wednesday.

The officer, identified as Mike Spann, was the first American officially recognized as being killed in combat situation within Afghanistan.

Spann's body was recovered shortly after Northern Alliance forces, backed by US and British special forces, quelled a revolt by hundreds of surrendering foreign Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners. The CIA did not provide any details on how the 32-year- old spy was killed.

Earlier reports had said that one US personnel was killed in a shootout during the revolt which took place on Sunday. But the Bush administration had denied the reports, insisting that all US personnel had been accounted for.

The administration later disclosed that five US military personnel were injured by a stray US bomb dropped by US warplanes which intended to provide air support to the Northern Alliance troops to crush the riots.

Apart from Spann, another three US military personnel have been killed outside Afghanistan in accidents related to the military strikes which began on October 7.