24 July,2009 08:43 AM IST | | Agencies
Saad bin Laden, a son of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, may have been killed in a US airstrike, US officials said yesterday.
The son was likely killed in Pakistan in the last several months, said a counter-terrorism official, one of three Obama administrationu00a0 officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The strike reportedly took place in the troubled area of Fata.
Though many in the intelligence community believe he is dead, they can't be 100 percent certain because no body or DNA evidence was recovered to prove it.
The US has carried out more than 45 missile attacks with drones in Pakistan's border region since last August.
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Saad was not considered a heavy hitter in his father's organisation and was not the target of the strike, but rather was killed during a strike intended for someone else/Saad was born in 1982 and is one of 19 children Osama is thought to have, officials have said.
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The younger bin Laden was believed to have fled Afghanistan shortly after the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 that routed his father from safe haven there and overthrew the Taliban regime.
