U.S. Drone Strike Said to Have Killed Qaeda Target in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The United States conducted a drone strike over the weekend that killed a Qaeda target in Kabul, the first attack since American forces left Afghanistan last year, according to multiple U.S. officials.

U.S. officials said the strike was not conducted by the military, suggesting that the operation was carried out by the C.I.A. Agency officials declined to comment.

A senior administration official said that the operation was successful and that there were no civilian casualties. The White House was expected to brief reporters later Monday night, a second administration official said.

A statement from the Taliban condemned the operation and said the strike was conducted on a residential house in Kabul’s Sherpur area, a wealthy downtown neighborhood that officials from the Taliban government have frequented. An investigation by Taliban authorities concluded that the attack was carried out by American drones, the statement said, though it provided no evidence to support the claims.

Taliban officials believe the Doha agreement — which outlined the terms for the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — prohibits American strikes, something U.S. officials dispute. Residents in Kabul blamed Pakistan for possibly helping with the airstrike.

According to one American analyst, the house that was struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government whom American officials say is close to senior Qaeda figures.

The analyst said pictures of the strike posted on social media suggested a strike by an RX9, a hellfire missile armed with long blades aimed at killing targets with kinetic energy to minimize major collateral damage.

In the months since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, American military and diplomatic officials have been discussing with allies where to reposition American forces for strikes on high-value targets in Afghanistan. This so-called over-the-horizon strategy is still in its infancy, and talks about positioning forces in neighboring Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have proceeded slowly.

But the United States has plenty of capability to send unmanned drones as well as manned attack aircraft within striking distance of Afghanistan, from land bases along the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and even the United States.

Three U.S. officials reached on Monday said that the strikes were not carried out by the Defense Department or United States Central Command, the combatant command with responsibility for Afghanistan, leaving open the possibility that the strike was carried out by the C.I.A. J. Todd Breasseale, the acting Pentagon press secretary, declined to comment on the strike.

The U.S. government is currently reviewing its policy on drone strikes against terrorist targets. While the military generally conducts strikes in established war zones, the C.I.A. carries out the operations in areas where the United States wants a measure of secrecy over its actions.

Because the Taliban government opposes any drone strikes in its territory, the United States may have preferred to use the C.I.A. to conduct the operation.

While the C.I.A. has its own drones, it will also use military drones, with authority of the strikes handing over to the agency as the aircraft enters into airspace where Defense Department aircraft are not authorized to operate.

Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting from Kabul.