But the rebel leadership has apparently taken few steps to collect the missiles its fighters carried away from Ga'a or to prevent more of them from leaking.
Two other American officials, speaking anonymously so as not to upset diplomatic relations with the rebels, said that after the initial leakage of the SA-7s the American government repeatedly asked the National Transitional Council, the de facto rebel authority, to collect and secure the missiles and to prevent more missiles from getting loose.
The goal, they said, is to reduce the chances of large numbers turning up on the black market by finding and collecting as many missiles as they can, and ensure that as many others as possible are stored safely.
Combined information from NATO and Russian sensors will provide better information on attacking missiles than either could collect alone.
All of the postponed tests would utilize an Aegis radar on a surface ship to track a ballistic missile and interceptor, and collect other data.
Players can also collect weapons that can temporarily disable other vehicles: missiles take out the opposing vehicles from the front, while bombs take them out from the rear.
The North's two previous bomb tests were considered less than successful, and it needed to conduct more tests to collect information on miniaturizing bombs to mount on its missiles, analysts said.
Nabeela, the little girl, was collecting okra when the missiles struck.
He refused to say whether the radar was collecting intelligence on Russian missiles, but said that it "does not violate either the letter or the spirit of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty".
In the meantime, the Iraqis have collected cold war-era missiles found in a junkyard on an air base north of Baghdad, and they are trying to get them in working order.
