KABUL - The US officials have said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is planning to close its satellite bases in Afghanistan and pull all its personnel back to Kabul by early summer.

The officials further added that the US military commanders were informed of the plan by CIA Director John Brennan in March.

“They are beginning their own retrograde and they kind of sprung it on the military, which is raising concern,” a senior military official told The Los Angeles Times.

The US intelligence officials have said CIA would shutter operations outside Kabul due to the steady pullout of U.S. military forces that normally provide protection and logistical support for the network of intelligence-gathering outposts, which often are hidden inside U.S. military bases.

CIA will remove all its case officers and analysts as well as National Security Agency specialists responsible for intercepting insurgent phone calls and other communications, a rich source of daily intelligence.

A former CIA operator said, “There is no stomach in the building for going out there on our own. We are not putting our people out there without U.S. forces.”

The US military has closed hundreds of forward operating bases as coalition forces are preparing to end the combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of the year and Afghan national security forces are taking lead in security.

However, the US military fears that the unexpected abrupt withdrawal by CIA will deprive it of vital intelligence while thousands of American troops remain in the country and insurgent attacks are normally at their peak.

In the meantime, the CIA also plans this summer to stop paying the salaries of Afghan paramilitary forces that it has armed and trained for more than a decade to help fight the Taliban-led insurgency in Eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.  (KP)