US debris found at site of reported Al Qaeda death

Officials are quiet on report of a drone

December 05, 2005|Associated Press

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan -- Shrapnel that appeared to be from a US-made missile was found yesterday at the house where Pakistan said a leading Al Qaeda operative was killed in an explosion. President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, however, declined to confirm the death.

US and Pakistani officials declined to confirm an NBC report, citing anonymous officials, that a US drone had launched the attack on the house where the operative, Hamza Rabia, reportedly was killed.

But residents found pieces of shrapnel at the blast scene. The fragments bore the designation of the Hellfire missile, which is carried by the US Air Force's unmanned, remote-controlled Predator aircraft, known as a drone.

The metal pieces bore the designator ''AGM-114," the words ''guided missile," and the initials ''US."

John Pike, director of the website GlobalSecurity.org, said the Hellfire is used almost exclusively by the US military.

Al Qaeda operatives would be unlikely to have Hellfire missiles, Pike said, although he said the possibility could not be discounted.

Mohammed Nasir, a man who lives near the house, said he heard at least two detonations and saw a white streak of light before a missile hit the house, sparking a huge explosion.

''I ran to my home fearing it may hit me," said Nasir. He added that many residents were unaware that foreigners were living in their neighborhood.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media, said Saturday that Rabia had been killed in a huge explosion set off by a missile attack.

Hadley declined to confirm that Rabia, said to be among Al Qaeda's top five leaders and accused of planning overseas attacks, was dead, or that the attack had been carried out by a pilotless US plane.

''At this point we are not in a position publicly to confirm that he is dead. But if he is, that is a good thing for the war on terror," Hadley told ''Fox News Sunday."

Rabia was involved in planning two assassination plots against the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, and ''we believe he was involved in planning for attacks against the United States," Hadley said.

Musharraf said Saturday that it was ''200 percent confirmed" that Rabia had been killed.

The senior Pakistani intelligence source said the missile attack had blown up a stockpile of bomb-making materials, grenades, and other munitions. Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, said Rabia's two Syrian bodyguards also were killed in the explosion.

Pakistani officials said Rabia's death had been confirmed by DNA tests. But the Dawn newspaper, citing officials, said Saturday that his body had been retrieved by associates from outside Pakistan.