Attack prompts rumours of bin Laden's death

American planes bombed suspected al-Qa'ida and Taliban positions in eastern Afghanistan yesterday as a missile attack by a pilotless CIA drone provoked speculation that Osama bin Laden himself had been killed.

Officials in Washington said they believed a tall al-Qa'ida leader had been killed in the CIA missile strike in the east of the country but the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency said that the dead were three Afghan civilians. Mr bin Laden is believed to be between 6ft 4in and 6ft 6intall.

Elsewhere, about 600 fighters loyal to the warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum refused to leave the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, defying a UN-backed security plan and undermining the efforts of Hamid Karzai, the interim leader, to crack down on dissent.

An official in Washington said a CIA Predator drone had fired a Hellfire missile at a group of men thought to include a senior al-Qa'ida official.

"The central figure had a close encounter of the worst kind with a Hellfire missile," the official said.

The AIP news agency said an American missile hit a group of young men in the Zawar Khili area, 35km (20 miles) south-west of Khost town and 15km from the Pakistani border on Tuesday night. "Two people were killed on the spot and one died on the way to hospital," the AIP said. The agency, citing tribal elders, identified the three dead men as Munir Ahmad, Jehangir Khan and Daraz Khan.

"They were standing and chatting when hit by the missile," said the elders. They also said there were no al-Qa'ida people in the area, AIP said.

George Tenet, the director of the CIA, told the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday that he did not know whether Mr bin Laden was dead or alive.

As questions over the fate of Mr bin Laden persisted, an Afghan official in eastern Paktia province said American aircraft bombed the Mafazatoo area of Gorboz district, about 20km to the south of the town of Khost, on Tuesday and late yesterday.

"The bombing was very heavy," Wazir Zadran, brother of the ousted governor of Paktia province, told Reuters."Gorboz is an area where we have al-Qa'ida and Taliban people," he said. He had no more details or information on casualties.