The report that American forces used a Hellfire missile to kill a top associate of Osama bin Laden in Yemen is no doubt going to generate a certain amount of lather among the anti-war left and right. The report, which we first saw on the Associated Press, quoted a United States official as noting that the attack expanded the war on terror by being America’s first overt attack on suspected Al Qaeda operatives outside Afghanistan. Qaed Salim Sunian al-Harethi, reported the AP, was one of several Al Qaeda members traveling by car in northwest Yemen when a Hellfire missile struck it Sunday, killing him and five others.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the attack was believed to have been conducted by a CIA aircraft, possibly a missile-carrying Predator drone. The AP quoted the official Yemeni news agency, local tribesmen, and the U.S. official as confirming that the strike killed al-Harethi. It said witnesses said they saw an aircraft, possibly a helicopter, in the area. Hellfires can also be launched by attack helicopters.

The others killed were believed to be low-level operatives, the AP said. It also said that since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the CIA has used remotely operated Predator drone aircraft to make pinpoint strikes on Al Qaeda leaders — including Mohammed Atef, who was bin Laden’s military chief and a September 11 organizer and was killed in November near Kabul. Like the Israelis responding to Palestinian Arab terror, America is making these attacks because, in the wake of September 11, it understands that they are necessary to prevent further murders of its people. Like Israel, it no doubt has a long slog ahead of it in a war that will take years yet to prosecute.