Panetta: Al-Qaida growing weaker

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 9 (UPI) -- Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, visiting Afghanistan for the first time as U.S. secretary of defense, says al-Qaida is growing weaker.

Panetta made his comments aboard a U.S. military plane en route to Kabul, saying intelligence uncovered following the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan indicated a decade of U.S. operations against the terror network has left it with fewer than two dozen key operatives, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"If we can be successful at going after them, I think we can really undermine their ability to do any kind of planning to be able to conduct any kinds of attack on this country," Panetta said. "That's why I think" the defeat of al-Qaida is "within reach."

Panetta also said there are "suspicions, but no smoking gun" that some Pakistani officials knew bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.

Panetta's comments were the most recent estimate of al-Qaida's strength by a senior U.S. official, the Times said.

Panetta's assessment comes in the wake of President Barack Obama's recent announcement that over the next 18 months he would withdraw 30,000 of the 100,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan.