THE US military has conducted almost a dozen secret operations against al-Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere since 2004, it was reported yesterday.
Citing more than six unnamed military and intelligence officials, as well as senior Bush administration policy staff, the New York Times said the operations were authorised by a classified order signed by former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the approval of US president George W Bush.
Although each mission required high-level government approval, the order gave the military new authority to strike al-Qaeda militants anywhere in the world and a broader mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the US.
The order identified 15 to 20 countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, where militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, a senior administration official told the newspaper.
A former senior CIA official told the paper that one of the operations included the raid on a suspected militant compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan.
The New York Times said its sources refused to provide details about the other previously undisclosed attacks, except to say they had been carried out in Syria, Pakistan and other countries.
The raids have typically been conducted by US special forces, often in conjunction with the CIA, the newspaper reported.
Specific missions have to be approved by the defence secretary or, in the case of Syria and Pakistan, by the president.
Last month, US helicopters attacked a Syrian village a few kilometres from the border with Iraq. Eight civilians were killed in the raid, which targeted senior al-Qaeda members. This was not the first time special operations forces had been active in Syria and the raid drew protest from the Syrian government only because it was more noticeable than previous ones, the newspaper said.
Officials made clear to the newspaper that there had been no raids in Iran using the authority of this order, but they suggested that US forces had carried out reconnaissance missions there using other classified directives.
Officials said as many as a dozen additional missions were cancelled because senior administration figures decided they were too dangerous, diplomatically problematic or relied on insufficient evidence.
One aborted operation was a plan in early 2005 to capture Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Pakistan.