The Predator unmanned aircraft, armed with Hellfire missiles, above, is the CIA’s deadliest weapon, capable of hovering for hours over a target and firing off a weapon at the push of a button in an office thousands of miles away.

The unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the US company General Atomics has been operational as a battlefield spy plane for several years and was used effectively over Kosovo in 1999, flying at 25,000ft and taking highresolution pictures. However, early last year, after successful test trials, the Predator was fitted with Hellfire anti-tank missiles.

It was a dramatic development, for it meant that its operators could spot a moving target and launch a missile immediately. In Kosovo, if the unarmed Predator located a moving target, a bomber had to be called up and, by the time it reached the position, often the target had gone. Predators with Hellfire missiles were used for the first time operationally in Afghanistan. Television monitors that followed their progress were located at the CIA’s headquarters at Langley in Virginia, and at the Pentagon.

Unfortunately for the CIA, Washington had failed to sort out a well-defined command and control system to ensure a rapid response. Thus, when Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taleban leader, was spotted in a vehicle travelling though the mountains, it took too long for the aircraft’s operators to get permission to fire a missile. Mullah Omar escaped.

Two months ago Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary, announced that he would use special forces to mount counter-terrorist operations wherever suspected al-Qaeda members were known to be located. The CIA moved to Yemen recently and was given authority to fire the missiles.

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