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WASHINGTON, Feb 8: A CIA-launched missile strike this week in an area previously occupied by Al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan appeared to have hit its target — a tall man who was being treated with great deference by those around him, a US official said on Friday.
The official said the individual was believed to be a senior Al Qaeda official but would not say whether suspicions centered on Osama bin Laden, the 1.93m-tall leader of Al Qaeda.
“He was clearly someone who was senior,” the official said. “But beyond that I can’t take you any further than that, and there are a number of senior Al Qaeda guys who are taller than average.”
US military teams have not yet been able to reach the site of Monday’s attack to inspect the damage first hand.
“As there always is with one of these strikes, there is always real interest in finding out what the results were,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters.
The strike was carried out with a single Hellfire missile fired from an armed Predator reconnaissance aircraft at a group of suspected Al Qaeda in an area previously occupied by Al Qaeda, the US official said.
Pentagon officials identified the area as being near Zhawar Kili, where Al Qaeda had an extensive network of caves and training camps.
GUANTANAMO BAY: Thursday’s decision by US President George W. Bush to accord Geneva Convention protection to detained Taliban will be difficult to implement immediately, authorities at the US naval base detention centre said on Friday.
“Regarding the White House announcement according the full protection (of the Geneva Convention) to the Taliban fighters but not to Al Qaeda operatives, we intend to comply fully with these intentions here on the ground” at the prison camp known as “Camp X-Ray,” spokesman Steve Cox told reporters.
But “to determine who is Taliban, who is Al Qaeda... is an ongoing process that will continue.”
The US president’s decision, coming on the heels of the latest transfer of 28 shackled prisoners from Afghanistan, was not expected to alter the treatment of prisoners, which the Pentagon insists is humane, nor did it shed light on the legal process under which the US administration intends to bring them to justice.—AFP
