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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