Air strike in Pakistan kills 17 in reported attacks on top al-Qaida leadersJanuary 13, 2006 - 22:03
Air strike in Pakistan kills 17 in reported attacks on top al-Qaida leaders
DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AP) - A pre-dawn air strike killed at least 17 people in a remote Pakistani tribal area Friday and U.S. networks said jets were targeting a suspected al-Qaida hideout that may have been frequented by high-level operatives, possibly the terror group's No. 2 leader.
Citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, the reports said Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, could have been in the location or about to arrive hit when a U.S. aircraft fired on a compound in the remote Pakistani tribal area Bajur. ABC quoted anonymous Pakistani military sources saying he could have been among five top al-Qaida officials believed killed.
There was no confirmation from either the Pakistani or U.S. government, but a senior Pakistani government official said: "There is 50-50 chance that some al-Qaida personality was at the home" that was hit.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had heard the al-Qaida figure in question may have been al-Zawahri and the information would be clearer later Saturday.
The Pakistani military only confirmed there had been explosions in a remote border village but could not confirm the cause or casualties. The spokesman for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the incident was still being investigated.
"I am not in a position to say yes or no. We know that media is reporting it but we have no such information, or any details. We are still investigating this matter," Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan said Saturday.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said he had no information a top al-Qaida figure had been targeted in the strike.
In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials all said they had no information on the reports concerning al-Zawahri.
A reporter who visited the scene about 12 hours after what villagers said was an air strike saw three destroyed houses, hundreds of metres apart. Villagers, who denied any links to the Taliban or al-Qaida militants, had buried at least 15 people, including women and children and were digging for more bodies in the rubble. There were no security forces in the area.
U.S. Pakistani officials told NBC news U.S. predator drones fired as many as 10 missiles.
Doctors said at least 17 people died in the attack before dawn Friday - the second deadly strike in a week near the Afghan border.
Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, a local legislator from a hard-line Islamic party, said it was a U.S. air strike - opposite a region of Afghanistan where Islamic militants are active. But the U.S. military denied knowledge of the incident.
Residents of Damadola, a hillside hamlet about 6.5 kilometres inside northwestern Pakistan, recounted hearing aircraft flying overhead before bombs or missiles crashed through the Pashtun tribal village - blasts that were felt kilometres away.
Militant groups like al-Qaida, the Taliban and the militia of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are believed to be active in the border area but Bajur itself is rarely troubled by violence.
In Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Lieut. Mike Cody said he had no reports on Friday's attack.
The reporter who travelled to Damadola, about 200 kilometres southeast of Islamabad, counted at least 15 fresh graves of victims, buried quickly following Islamic custom. Villagers said more than 30 people had died and others were wounded.
Mohammed Karim, a doctor from a hospital in the main town Bajur - the tribal region where Damadola is located - said 17 or 18 people were killed and two others were treated for their wounds.
Three houses, hundreds of metres apart, were destroyed, with wreckage scattered in craters some three metres deep. Five women were weeping nearby, cursing the attackers. Dozens of others gathered to express condolences.
"My entire family was killed and I don't know whom should I blame for it," said Sami Ullah, a 17-year old student, as he shifted debris from his ruined home with a hoe.
"I only seek justice from God."
He said 24 of his family members were killed - among them his parents, four brothers, three sisters-in-law, three sisters and five nephews. He said his father, Bakht Pur, had been a labourer.
Digging through the cement rubble of his home, Shah Zaman, who lost two sons and a daughter, recounted hearing planes at about 2:40 a.m. local time.
"I ran out and saw planes were dropping bombs," said Zaman, 40.
"I saw my home being hit."
"I don't know who carried out this attack and why. We were needlessly attacked."
"We are law-abiding people. I think we were targeted wrongly," he said.
In Afghanistan's eastern province Kunar, which borders Bajur, deputy provincial governor Noor Mohammed denied a rocket attack had been launched from inside Afghanistan.
"I have been in touch with all the security forces in Kunar and no one has heard about this," he said.
The attack was the latest in a series of apparent air or missile strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan, unexplained by authorities but widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or Islamic militants.
Last Saturday, an attack on a cleric's home in North Waziristan, about 200 kilometres southwest of Bajur, killed eight people. Local tribesmen said U.S. helicopters launched the attack and took away five tribesmen. Pakistan's government protested to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The U.S. military denied it had bombed the area.
Last month, a senior al-Qaida suspect from Egypt, Hamza Rabia, was killed in North Waziristan. Pakistan denied residents' claims he died in a U.S. missile strike.
In early 2004, during a major Pakistani counter-terrorism operation in neighbouring South Waziristan, Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity al-Zawahri was believed to be hiding in the area but the reports were never substantiated.
Pakistan has tens of thousands of forces deployed along the Afghan border to hunt al-Qaida and Taliban militants and maintains a sensitive alliance with the United States in its war on terror, which is opposed by many in this Islamic country of 150 million people. Pakistan said it does not allow Afghan or the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan to operate on its soil.
"Our people say Americans did it," Rashid said.
"If it is true, then Pakistan should lodge a strong protest with the U.S. government for killing innocent people."
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