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Posted on: Jan. 23rd, 2006 || www.newsday.com

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- When CIA officers decided this month they had a fix on al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, they also judged there was no way to arrest him. The village where they believed Ayman al-Zawahri was planning a meeting of militants was deep in a rugged, Pashtun tribal homeland where thousands of well-armed men would fight any troops, American or Pakistani, who might enter.

But the CIA's unmanned Predator spy planes can carry laser-guided missiles. For days, CIA officers monitored the village by video from the drones, watching al-Qaida militants but also local women and children coming and going, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence analysts say.

Among CIA and Pakistani intelligence officials, who meet daily here to plan their battle against al-Qaida, "It was certainly known that there would be collateral damage" -- civilian casualties -- "and that it would be politically sensitive" to fire the rockets, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief in Washington.

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