U.S.: Airstrike targeted enemy, not peasants

An Air Force Predator aerial vehicle carries a Hellfire missile in an exercise

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials said Wednesday an airstrike killed at least one person connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network on February 4 in Afghanistan, and those attacked were not peasants.

Newspaper reports have claimed those killed in the airstrike were peasants scavenging for scrap metal near the town of Zawar Kili when they were hit by a missile fired from a radio-controlled CIA "Predator" surveillance aircraft.

U.S. officials told CNN at least one of those killed had connections to al Qaeda. The officials say they have intelligence from a variety of sources to back up that assertion.

"We watched them for hours with the Predator," one official said, "not once did any of them pick up any scrap metal."

The men were in a mountainous area that had earlier been bombed by U.S. aircraft as a suspected al Qaeda hideout.

Officials said that during the hours the men were observed, they appeared to be surveying the damage and looking for weapons or other concealed items. Some of the men were wearing Arab garb.

In another facet of the speculation surrounding the identities of those killed, U.S. officials are disputing a report published in The Washington Times that said the tallest of the men was over 6 feet tall.

Initial reports suggested that man might have been bin Laden, who is reported to be 6-feet-4 or -5 inches tall.

An official told CNN Wednesday, "We have no way to know how tall he was because there was nothing of known size in the pictures to compare him with."

Officials have said that during the time the men were observed by the camera-equipped aircraft, it was clear they were heavily armed, and were acting with great deference to the tallest among them.

Officials said forensic evidence retrieved from the site by U.S. Special Forces is being compared with DNA samples from bin Laden family members at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington.