A missile fired by remote control from a pilotless CIA drone aircraft has hit what was believed to be a group of senior al Qaeda members in southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least one of them, a US official said on Wednesday.
"It was a CIA 'predator' missile that was fired upon what was thought to be a senior al Qaeda official," said the official, who asked not to be identified. He said the attack took place on Monday night.
"At least one was killed and possibly others. It's not clear who the individual was," the official said, adding that bad weather in the region had prevented a mission to identify bodies.
Citing a high Pentagon source, CBS News reported that several senior leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network died when the missile hit the group near the Zawar Khili cave complex in the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan.
The network said it was believed that senior al-Qaeda members, including bin Laden, have been holed up at Zawar Khili since escaping from the Tora Bora cave complex, which was bombed two months ago.
Washington holds bin Laden and his al Qaeda network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.
CIA Director George Tenet told the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that he did not know whether bin Laden was dead or alive.
Asked when was the last time the US had information indicating bin Laden was alive, Tenet declined to give a public response. "I'd be happy to talk about all of this in closed session," he told the panel.
(China Daily February 7, 2002)
