The agency is known to operate armed Predator aircraft, but the missions remain classified and are not generally acknowledged by the C.I.A.

Another proposal, initially resisted by some senior officials, involved using unmanned Predator aircraft to fly over Afghanistan relaying video footage back to the agency.

The missile was fired by a Predator aircraft operated by the C.I.A. from a base hundreds of miles from the target, the officials said.

Pilotless Predator aircraft are flying surveillance missions over the no-flight zone in southern Iraq.

A spokesman for the C.I.A., which uses pilotless Predator aircraft in counterterrorism operations, also declined to comment.

The C.I.A., which uses armed Predator aircraft in counterterrorism operations, would not comment on that attack.

The Air Force wants $4.9 million to buy 50 new Hellfire missiles for armed Predator aircraft.

Such a shift in mission will make it easier, for example, to provide Pentagon imagery from satellites and unmanned Predator aircraft to disaster relief organizations, he said.

Subsequent to 9/11, approval was quickly granted to ship the missiles, and the Predator aircraft and missiles reached their overseas location on September 16, 2001.

Small teams of remote-control warriors nudge joysticks to fly armed Predator aircraft 7,500 miles away.