Missile kills six top Al Qaeda men in Yemen

The attack by the unmanned aircraft marks a new stage in Washington’s war on terror and a step up in US assistance for Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih’s fight against terrorists who have taken refuge in his mountainous country. Since Salih’s meeting with President Bush at the White House in December, military assistance to Yemen has grown to include weapons and training by US Special Forces units.

CIA and Pentagon spokesmen on Monday refused to discuss the operation, although other sources said the CIA has been operating armed Predators over Yemen for months. While many details of Sunday’s attack were not available, sources said US operators of the unmanned aircraft, who could be working from ground stations hundreds of miles away, were probably alerted to the Al Qaeda utility vehicle and its passengers by intelligence information that may have included intercepted phone messages.

The Predator, which can operate from up to 25,000 feet, picked up the vehicle using either television or radar and tracked it as it sped along a highway towards the city of Marib. The aircraft’s 14 Hellfire missiles can be aimed and fired by the ground station operators and guided to the target. Sources said the vehicle was destroyed and the other passengers were burned beyond recognition. (LATWP)