Report: U.S. in secret attacks on al-Qaida

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. military forces have used secret authority to conduct previously undisclosed attacks on al-Qaida in Syria and Pakistan since 2004, The New York Times said.

Citing senior U.S. officials, the newspaper said the military operations, usually conducted by Special Operations forces, were authorized under a classified order signed in early 2004 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President George W. Bush.

The order authorized the military to attack al-Qaida anywhere in the world, the Times reported Sunday, and included an order to carry out operations in countries that are not at war with the United States.

In one case in 2006, a U.S. Navy Seal team raided a location in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, a former top Central Intelligence Agency official told the newspaper. The operation was shot by a camera on a remote-controlled Predator aircraft and officials watched it in real time at the CIA Counterterrorist Center in Virginia, the newspaper said.

The secret order was described by current and former military and intelligence officials, and by senior Bush administration policy officials, the Times said.

White House, Defense Department and military spokesmen declined to comment, the newspaper said.