WASHINGTON – A senior Al Qaeda (search) operative was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned CIA (search) Predator aircraft near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border earlier this week, ABC News reported Friday.
FOX News could not confirm the report.
Intelligence officials, who were not identified in the report, said Al Qaeda operative Haitham al-Yemeni had been tracked for some time with the hope that he would lead them to Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden (search), ABC reported.
With the capture of the No. 3 leader of Al Qaeda, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, in northwest Pakistan earlier this month, officials decided to strike at al-Yemeni rather than risk that he would go into hiding, ABC reported.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Lt. Cindy Moore, said forces from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan were not involved in such an incident, but she couldn't say whether it had taken place.
The CIA declined to comment on the report.
The Predator (search), armed with Hellfire missiles, is an unmanned aircraft that flies at medium altitude for surveillance and reconnaissance.
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