One of the sons of Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda terrorist network, was believed killed in Pakistan earlier this year, the CNN reported Thursday.

Citing a US counterterrorism official, the CNN said that Saad bin Laden was probably killed in a missile strike by a US predator drone.

"We believe he is dead, although in all of these instances, unless you have DNA or other hard evidence, you don't know for sure," the official told the CNN.

According to the CNN's report, Saad fled Afghanistan to Iran after the war broke out in October 2001 to Iran and had been held under house arrest there since.

Saad was believed to have moved back to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region last year but did not play a significant role in his father's terrorist networks, the CNN said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2009)