WASHINGTON, May 9: The CIA fired a missile from a Predator drone aircraft in Afghanistan this week, aiming at Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has threatened US soldiers, but missed its target, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

Hekmatyar managed to escape, but several of his top lieutenants were killed in the missile strike on Monday, NBC said.

Asked about the report, a CIA spokesman declined comment. The US Central Command, which is directing the military operation in Afghanistan, said only, “It was not a US military strike.”

The NBC said the United States wants Hekmatyar dead because he is reportedly plotting to kill US troops in Afghanistan and has offered rewards for the death of any American.

A conflict with the warlord could drag US forces into the middle of an Afghan civil war between rival factions, the report said.

Hekmatyar is no stranger to the CIA, which backed the warlord during Afghanistan’s war with he former Soviet Union more than two decades ago.—Reuters