NEWS: U.S. Airstrike misses Al-Zawahri; Murders 30 women & children instead
Al-Qaida’s top operating officer reportedly not at site of U.S. attack
NBC News and news services
Updated: 6:06 a.m. ET Jan. 14, 2006
URL: msnbc.msn.com
DAMADOLA, Pakistan - Two senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Saturday that al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri was not at the site of the U.S. air strike near the Afghan border the previous day.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that Pakistan's own investigation concluded that al-Zawahri was not in Damadola village where at least 17 people were killed in the strike early Friday.
"Their information was wrong, and our investigations conclude that they acted on a false information," said a senior intelligence official who has direct knowledge of the investigations launched by Pakistan to look into the attacks.
Separately, a senior government official told AP that al-Zawahri was not present at the homes which were attacked.
"He was not there, and this is what we know after a detailed probe" into the incident, he said.
Pakistan's government was expected to formally issue its reaction on the attack later Saturday.
On Friday, American intelligence officials told NBC News that CIA-operated Predator drone aircraft carried out the missile strike. One official said intelligence indicated a strong possibility that al-Zawahri was in the village at the time of the airstrike.
An AP reporter who visited the scene in Damadola village about 12 hours after the attack saw three destroyed houses, hundreds of yards apart. Villagers, who denied any links to Taliban or al-Qaida militants, recounted hearing aircraft flying overhead before being bombarded with blasts felt miles away. By their count at least 30 people died, including women and children.
Witnesses estimated that more than 8,000 people attended a peaceful demonstration against the attack on Saturday.
U.S. and Pakistani officials told NBC News that as many as 10 missiles were fired at the village, 125 miles northwest of the capital Islamabad.
The CIA Predators carry as many as four Hellfire missiles. Only last month, the CIA used a Predator to kill the No. 3 man in al-Qaida in a similar Hellfire strike in Pakistan.
Killing Zawahri would be a major victory for the United States in its war on terrorism. Zawahri, not Osama bin Laden, has emerged recently as the chief operator for al-Qaida.
ABC quoted anonymous Pakistani military sources as saying five top al-Qaida officials were believed killed.
There was no confirmation from either Islamabad or Washington on any of the reports.
DNA analysis
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told The AP the remains of some bodies had “quickly been removed” from Damadola after the strike and DNA tests were being conducted, but would not say by whom. Like the senior government official, he spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
An intelligence official told NBC that it does have a sample of Zawahri's DNA, but that it was unclear how long it would take to determine whether or no al-Zawahri had been hit.
“Anyone who tells you there is clarity on whether he [Zawahri] was killed ... do not take what they are saying as gospel,” a senior U.S. official said.
The intelligence official that spoke to The AP said that the CIA had told Pakistani agents that they had targeted al-Zawahri in the attack but it remained to be seen if he’d been in the village at the time. The official added that hours before the strike some unidentified guests had arrived at the home of one man named Shah Zaman.
Zaman, whose home was destroyed, told AP he was a laborer and had no ties to militants. He was not hurt but said three of his children were killed.
A local lawmaker who visited Damadola soon after the attack said no foreigners were among the dead, asserting no body was burned beyond recognition.
Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid said the victims were a family of jewelers. “They have been living here for centuries. They are 100 percent local people,” he said.
The spokesman for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, only said the explosions in the village were under investigation.
“I am not in a position to say yes or no,” Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told AP. “We know that media is reporting it, but we have no such information, or any details. We are still investigating this matter.”
In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials all said they had no information on the reports concerning al-Zawahri.
In Afghanistan, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody referred questions on the matter to the Pentagon. The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan referred questions to the Pakistan government.
'I saw my home being hit'
Doctors told AP that at least 17 people died in the attack on Damadola, a Pashtun tribal hamlet on a hillside about four miles from the Afghan border.
But at one destroyed house, Sami Ullah, a 17-year-old student, said he alone lost 24 of his relatives. Five women were weeping nearby, cursing the attackers.
“My entire family was killed, and I don’t know whom should I blame for it,” Ullah said. “I only seek justice from God.”
Zaman said he heard planes at around 2:40 a.m. and then eight explosions. Speaking as he dug through the rubble of his home, he said planes had been flying over the village for the last three or four days.
“I ran out and saw planes were dropping bombs,” said Zaman, 40, who lost two sons and a daughter. “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,” he said.
The attack was the latest in a series of strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan, unexplained by authorities but widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or Islamic militants.
Border issue
In Afghanistan, Mohammed Hasan, deputy police chief of Kunar province, which is opposite Bajur, said U.S. forces had for weeks been patrolling in airplanes along the rugged border.
Pakistan says it does not allow Afghan or the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida believed to be hiding there. The war on terror is opposed by many in this Islamic nation of 150 million people.
On Monday Pakistan lodged a protest with the U.S. military in Afghanistan after a reported U.S. airstrike killed eight people in the North Waziristan tribal region last Saturday.
Al-Zawahri, who has a $25 million dollar U.S. bounty on his head, has appeared regularly over the Internet and in Arab media, encouraging Muslims to attack Americans and U.S. interests worldwide.
Like bin Laden, his whereabouts had been unknown since the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan began following the terror attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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