CIA Director David Petraeus, a retired general whose surge strategy hastened the US military withdrawal in Iraq, has resigned over an extramarital affair after 14 months in charge of the intelligence agency, dpa reported according to broadcaster MSNBC report on Friday.
Petraeus, who took charge of the intelligence agency 14 months ago after retiring from the US Army as a four-star general, told CIA employees in a letter Friday that President Barack Obama on Friday had accepted the resignation that he offered Thursday.
White House spokesman Jay Carney acknowledged that Obama had received the letter, and said a presidential statement was pending.
Petraeus, whose surge strategy hastened the US military withdrawal from Iraq, told the CIA workforce that he had made a terrible mistake. He said the reason for his resignation was strictly his personal indiscretion and not related to an investigation into the September attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed.