• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Zawahri not present during attack: Pakistan official

Posted on: Saturday, 14 January 2006, 08:19 CST

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, was not in a village near the Afghan border that was hit by a U.S. airstrike early on Friday morning, a senior Pakistani government official said on Saturday.

"Al-Zawahri was not there at the time of the attack," the official told Reuters, after U.S. intelligence sources in Washington had earlier said the airstrike that killed at least 18 people in northern Pakistan had targeted Osama bin Laden's deputy.

Pakistan condemned on Saturday an airstrike on a village near the Afghan border that U.S. intelligence sources say was aimed at killing al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.

The government regretted the loss of civilian lives, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Tribesmen in Damadola village in the Bajaur tribal agency said 18 of their kinfolk were killed by the airstrike early on Friday morning, while a senior Pakistani government official said Zawahri was not in the village at the time.

"We want to assure the people we will not allow such an incident to reoccur," Ahmed said, reading a statement which termed the attack as "highly condemnable."

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category