Fri Nov 8,12:01 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International wrote to President Bush on Friday to question Washington's role in a missile attack on al Qaeda suspects in Yemen.

Six men suspected of membership of the militant Islamic network died in a car blast on Sunday that the United States said was due to a missile fired from an unmanned CIA aircraft.

"If this was the deliberate killing of suspects in lieu of arrest, in circumstances in which they did not pose an immediate threat, the killings would be extra-judicial executions in violation of international human rights law," the London-based rights group said in a statement. [So did anyone save a copy of the article where Amnesty took bin Laden to task for either the Cole or 9/11? No? I wonder why.]

"The United States should issue a clear and unequivocal statement that it will not sanction extra-judicial executions."

The attack, which the U.S defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, termed "a highly successful tactical operation," killed a leading suspect in the bombing of U.S. destroyer Cole two years ago. Seventeen U.S sailors died in the explosion in Aden.

Washington blames Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the September 11 attacks on the United States as well as the Cole attack.

A Yemeni official told Reuters on Thursday one of the six suspects killed was a U.S. national, which the United States said it could not confirm, and all six were "dangerous" members of al Qaeda.

Amnesty said in Friday's statement it had also asked Yemen to clarify whether it had any prior knowledge of the attack. The Pentagon has praised the Yemeni government for cooperating with the United States.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002