A Yemeni minister criticized U.S. officials Tuesday for prematurely revealing how a Hellfire missile strike from an unmanned CIA aircraft killed six al-Qaida suspects, and said that a seventh man escaped death by getting out of the car just before the strike. Interior Minister Rashad al-Eleimi's remarks, made after a weekly Cabinet meeting and carried by the official Saba news agency, were the first official Yemeni acknowledgment of the U.S. role in the Nov. 6 strike in northwestern Yemen.

"The operation was carried out ... in the framework of the security cooperation and coordination between Yemen and the United States," al-Eleimi was quoted as saying.

He criticized U.S. officials for their "hasty announcement of the attack's details," saying both sides were supposed to issue a joint-statement. Instead, within hours of word emerging of the car explosion, U.S. officials in Washington were leaking to reporters details of the strike.

Six men died in the missile strike, including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, believed to be al-Qaida's top operative in Yemen, and Yemeni-American Kamal Derwish, the alleged leader of a Buffalo, New York-based cell U.S. officials say has al-Qaida links.

Al-Eleimi said a seventh man, whom he did not identify, got out of the targeted car minutes before the attack.

Yemeni authorities, he said, had offered al-Harethi and his group "a deal through senior tribal leaders to give themselves up and receive a fair trial."

Al-Harethi refused the offer, he said, "prompting his tribe to abandon him."

On Saturday, an Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the other four men killed in the attack as Aousan al-Tureehi, Mounir al-Souda, Adel Souda and Saleh Hussein. He said they were members of the outlawed Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, a group sympathetic to al-Qaida that has carried out anti-government and anti-Western attacks inside Yemen.

Al-Eleimi confirmed the names were correct.

In recent days, Yemeni security officials and tribesmen have said U.S. fighter jets were patrolling Yemen's northern border provinces of Marib and Jawf, and Yemeni military patrols have been stopping vehicles to check passengers identities at new checkpoints in the provinces. The efforts were believed to be aimed at tightening the grip on al-Qaida members believed to be hiding out there.

One tribal leader said Americans had been seen working along with Yemeni government special forces, especially in Marib province.

PHOTO CAPTION

If the United States goes to war with Iraq, the Air Force might be using the same missile-firing drones that killed one of Al Qaeda's senior leaders in Yemen to attack Iraqi air defense radars, mobile Scud missile launchers and possibly sensitive targets in Baghdad, according to military officials November 6, 2002. The Predator unmanned aerial vehicle flies above USS Carl Vinson in this December 5, 1995 file photo.
- Nov 05 9:06 PM ET