Amman, Jordan (CNN) -- The wife of an alleged suicide bomber who killed eight people at a U.S. base in Afghanistan last week says she is shocked by his actions but "proud" of what he did. 

Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi -- a Jordanian doctor identified as the attacker -- said she doubted accusations her husband had been an intelligence agent, but was satisfied he did not die in vain. 

"I am proud of my husband. My husband accomplished a very big operation in such a war," she told reporters. "If he is a martyr, may God accept his martyrdom." 

Al-Balawi has been named as the suspected bomber behind a December 30 attack on a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan, that killed seven CIA officers and contractors, and a Jordanian army captain. 

U.S. and Jordanian officials say al-Balawi had been recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence agent, despite concerns over his extremist views, and was being used in the hunt for a senior al Qaeda figure. 

Bayrak, speaking from their home in Istanbul, told CNN Turk television she was "shocked" to hear what he had done. 

"It is impossible for me to make a guess if he was an agent, what was his reason going there," she said. "I am not saying whether I am believing or not believing. I am trying to say, we were not expecting something like this." 

Al-Balawi's mother, Shnara Fadel al-Balawi, told CNN her son, who she said had been a loner since childhood, had aspired to go to America, even telling her last year that he had booked a ticket to the United States. 
Who were they targeting?
a senior al Qaeda figure.