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Pakistanis stopped from protesting US
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-23 20:40

The protest followed a gathering of about 5,000 people near Damadola on Sunday.

Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, say the attack targeted, but missed, al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, but may have killed four other top al-Qaida members, including a top bombmaker with a $5 million bounty on his head.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, however, said Sunday there was no proof of that. During a visit to the United States, he called reports that al-Qaida leaders had been gathering in Damadola as "bizarre."

"The area does see movement of people from across the border. But we have not found one body or one shred of evidence that these people were there," Aziz told CNN, adding that Washington failed to inform Pakistani officials of the airstrike in advance.

Also Monday, lawmakers in northwestern Pakistan demanded the government expel U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in response to the airstrike. But the unanimous resolution by the provincial assembly was unlikely to sway the federal government.

Thousands of al-Qaida and Taliban militants, including Osama bin Laden and top lieutenant al-Zawahri, are believed to have sought refuge along the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Despite Aziz's denial that al-Qaida had been meeting in Damadola, Pakistani authorities say they are looking for militants who might have survived the attack, although Pakistan has not visibly stepped up maneuvers in the area.

Pakistan says it does not allow U.S. forces to pursue militants across the border from Afghanistan or launch strikes without permission.


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