A raid by a US drone aircraft in northwest Pakistan has killed a senior al-Qaeda leader, a US government official has said.

Saleh al-Somali, the man in charge of al-Qaeda's operations outside the Afghan-Pakistan region, was killed by a missile on Tuesday, the official, who declined to be named, said on Friday.

The official said that al-Somali was engaged in plotting attacks throughout the world, which probably included plans against targets in the US and Europe.

"Al-Somali was part of al-Qaeda's senior leadership circle, and he maintained connections to other Pakistan-based extremists who were plotting attacks against their own country and Afghanistan," he said.

"He took strategic guidance from [al Qaeda's] top leadership and translated it into operational blueprints for prospective terrorist attacks," the official said.

"He maintained relationships with al-Qaeda's allies in East Africa, such as the terrorist group al-Shabab."

The Pakistani officials said that Tuesday's attack targeted a car in Aspalga village, about 12km southeast of Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan.

North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan deployed about 30,000 troops in October as part of its offensive against the Taliban, which is considered to have links to al-Qaeda.

Aid groups working in Afghanistan have accused the US of trying to "militarise" their work by attaching conditions to aid and grants.

A number of aid organisations have told Al Jazeera they have turned down funding from the US government as the money has strings attached to military operations.

One such stipulation is "battlefield clean-up", which tasks aid groups with working directly under military reconstruction teams.

Anne Richard, of the International Rescue Committee, told Al Jazeera: "Sometimes, military leaders assume that because we are in the same place, we share the same over-arching goals.

"Our goal is to help the Afghan people - ideally, they help themselves. The military's goal is to fight in a war and to provide security.

"They are motivated by US national interest, we are motivated by humanitarian causes, humanitarian principals."

Humanitarian groups said that in 2009 their fundraising fell $200 million short of what they needed to help the Afghan people.

But William Frej, the mission director for USAID, said: "Militarisation of aid is a gross mischaracterisation of what actually happens on the ground.

"Without [counterinsurgency] and without the military's support, many of the humanitarian agencies - such as Oxfam - that raise such complaints would not be able to enter the areas once controlled by insurgents."

Beyond risks of being closely associated with the military, aid organisations also argue that they are simply better at delivering aid.

"I just don't think the military should be telling Americans if they want to work in humanitarian fields, they should go into the military," Richard said.

"I think that if Americans want to do this good work, perhaps even veterans, they should join our organisation."

KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. Marines were tense looking for bombs buried near a mud compound in this remote farming town in southern Afghanistan. Their new Afghan police colleagues were little help, joking around and sucking on lollipops meant for local kids.

The government had sent the new group of 13 police to live and train with the Marines just a few days earlier. Most were illiterate young farmers with no formal training who had been plucked off the streets only weeks before.

Building a capable police force is one of the keys to President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday to discuss how to recruit more Afghan police to meet Washington's goal of expanding the force from about 94,000 today to 160,000 by 2013.

The Marines' experience in Khan Neshin, once a key Taliban stronghold in volatile Helmand province, shows just how difficult the task will be.

The provincial government fired the last group of police assigned to Khan Neshin after more than half of them failed a drug test, prompting them to rebel by throwing rocks at the Marines. When the police weren't smoking drugs, Afghans complained they were taking goods from the bazaar without paying.

"The guys who were here last time put a bad taste in people's mouths by being typical of what people think of the Afghan National Police," said Gunnery Sgt. Randy Scifo, a military policeman from the 1st Marine Division who recently took over responsibility for the police in Khan Neshin.

Scifo said he was surprised the new group showed up without any training, but the police academy on a coalition base near the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah was full. The Marines expect to receive more than 20 graduates from the school toward the end of the month and will send this new group to the academy in January. Until then, they are not allowed to carry weapons.

"I want to bring peace and security to my country," said Mohamed Ullah, an 18-year-old with a wispy black beard from Helmand's northern Kajaki district.

The Marines spend their days teaching the recruits the basics of patrolling, sweeping the ground for buried bombs and searching people and vehicles. They prepared for their mission by working with a group of Afghan-Americans in a mock town set up on their base at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Scifo said.