Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military has been using a secret order to target suspected al-Qaeda terrorists anywhere in the world since spring 2004, the New York Times said, citing unidentified senior American officials.

The order, signed by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the approval of President George W. Bush, gave the military powers to launch raids in sovereign nations not at war with the U.S., the newspaper said.

The new authority, outlined in a classified document called ``al-Qaeda Network Exord,'' or execute order, identifies 15 to 20 countries where the Islamist militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, according to the paper.

Bush officials have shown a determination to operate under an expansive definition of self defense and the order marks a step in the evolution of how they sought to kill or capture al- Qaeda terrorists, the paper said. It came after the military gained a deeper understanding of the group's extensive global network, according to the report.

Almost a dozen previously undisclosed raids were carried out in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, the paper reported. Officials stressed there had been no raids into Iran, though they suggested U.S. forces had spied in Iran using other classified directives, according to the paper.

Each mission required high-level approval from officials in the targeted country, the newspaper said.

It 2006, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militant compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, and in 2007 an AC-130 struck a fishing village in Kenya, the Times said.

Helicopter Attack

On Oct. 26, U.S. helicopters attacked a Syrian village a few kilometers from the border with Iraq. Eight civilians were killed in the raid, which targeted senior al-Qaeda members. This was not the first time special operations forces have been active in Syria and the raid only drew protest from the Syrian government because it was more noticeable than previous ones, the Times said.

About a dozen other missions were canceled because of bad intelligence or bureaucratic entanglements, the paper said, citing as an example an aborted operation in early 2005 to send a team of Navy Seals and the Army Rangers into Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 10, 2008 04:55 EST