Al Qaeda men 'died in village airstrike'

Thousands of Pakistanis have called for "death to America" in protest. Picture / Reuters

NEW YORK - Three of the 18 people killed in a suspected CIA missile strike in a Pakistan village were Egyptians with ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, lending credibility to claims the targeted al Qaeda leader was due to visit.

CNN and ABC News quoted a Pakistani intelligence source as saying the dead Egyptians had direct ties to al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, himself, while Washington backed up the claim.

The officials said al-Zawahiri was invited to a dinner to mark an Islamic holiday in the village of Damadola near the Afghanistan border but sent aides instead.

US officials said "very solid" intelligence indicated that senior al Qaeda members were expected to attend.

Pakistani provincial authorities said four or five foreign terrorists were killed in the strike. A regional government source said that two Muslim clerics had invited 10 to 12 foreign militants to the dinner.

However, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, on the eve of a trip to Washington, said that despite the importance of ties with the US, attacks inside Pakistan "cannot be condoned".

"Pakistan has committed to fighting terrorism, but naturally we cannot accept any action within our country which results in what happened over the weekend," Aziz said.

The dead included women and children, the regional government said.

US counter-terrorism officials, however, have not ruled out that al-Zawahiri was killed.

Pakistani intelligence officials have described the strike as a CIA attack, probably carried out by missiles from a drone aircraft.

US sources told CNN that the remains of about 12 bodies, including as many as eight foreigners, were quickly retrieved by a group of men after the airstrike, and taken elsewhere for burial.

But there have been conflicting accounts from Pakistani officials and witnesses over who, if anyone, reclaimed bodies from the scene of the missile strike.

Damadola residents claim all the victims were locals and they buried them all. One Pakistani official said on Sunday that the bodies had been taken away for DNA tests, although it was not clear by whom.

The Bush Administration, meanwhile, called Pakistan a valued ally in the war on terror and pledged to continue pursuing al Qaeda leaders amid concerns the Damadola airstrike has strained ties between the two countries and could provoke more anti-American sentiment.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to discuss the attack but said "al Qaeda continues to seek to do harm to the American people".

"There are leaders that we continue to pursue and we will bring them to justice," he said.

"The American people expect us to do so and that's what [President Bush] is committed to doing."

The attack has become an embarrassment for Islamabad, a staunch US ally in the war on terrorism. Many in this nation of 150 million people oppose the Government's backing of the United States in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Frustration has been growing over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the porous and ill-defined frontier aimed at militants.

Washington has 20,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, but Pakistan says it does not allow them to hunt down or attack militants across the border.

Thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets over the weekend, chanting "death to America" and calling for the resignation of military leader President Pervez Musharraf.

The attack has also undermined the fragile goodwill cultivated in Pakistan by generous US relief in the wake of October's earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people.

- REUTERS