By DEREK ROSE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

More Predator drones may soon be raining down Hellfire on Al Qaeda terrorists, a top official said yesterday.

President Bush has given "broad authority" to U.S. officials "to do what they have to do to protect this country," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told "Fox News Sunday."

"It's a new kind of war. We're fighting on a lot of different fronts," she said.

The CIA used the Predator, a low-flying unmanned plane, to launch a 5-foot-long Hellfire missile at an Al Qaeda all-terrain vehicle in Yemen on Nov. 3.

Six operatives were annihilated, including Salim Sinan al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, a former Osama Bin Laden bodyguard who plotted the October 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole. Another casualty is believed to be Kamal Derwish, a U.S. citizen from Yemen said to be the ringleader of Buffalo's alleged terrorist sleeper cell.

The U.S. is tracking other Al Qaeda members in various countries for possible Predator hits, news reports said.

One target includes Muhammad al-Hamati, a Yemenite honey merchant who allegedly assisted with logistics in the Cole attack, Time magazine reported in its latest edition.

The drone apparently flew out of Djibouti, the new home of the U.S. military command for the region.

Authorities in Yemen tipped U.S. officials off to al-Hamati's whereabouts and gave permission for the strike, Time says.

"They never knew they were in our sights," a U.S. official told Time. "And I can assure you, they never knew what hit them."

But Newsweek reported that the CIA and Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, were infuriated that the Defense Department leaked the story of the strike, blowing a cover story about a car bombing.

Opposition leaders in Yemen were outraged, viewing it as a violation of the country's sovereignty, and CIA officials worry it could discourage other leaders from allowing Predator strikes in their territory, reports said.

Although Amnesty International questioned the legality of the strike this weekend, Rice said the killings raised "no constitutional questions."

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002