captured al-Qaida leader told interrogators that he and the terror group's second in command met last year at the same home hit by a U.S. missile strike last week, Pakistani intelligence officials said Saturday.
Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qaida No. 2, was the apparent target of the Jan. 13 attack but apparently was not at the home when it and two other residences in the town near the Afghan border were destroyed by U.S. missiles.
Pakistani authorities nonetheless suspect al-Qaida operatives had gathered for dinner that night at the home in Damadola to plan attacks early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an intelligence official said.
Al-Zaqahri and other al-Qaida officials had met there at least once before, in early 2005, according to Pakistani officials, who said they learned the details from interrogations of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, once al-Qaida's No. 3 leader.
Al-Libbi, who twice tried to assassinate Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for making the Islamic nation a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, was captured last May after a shootout in another remote hamlet in northwestern Pakistan. After his arrest in Pakistan, he was eventually turned over to Washington for further investigation.
Al-Libbi said he had met with al-Zawahri at the house months before his arrest, one Pakistani security official said, adding "his statement was later verified, and we were able to confirm that al-Zawahri visited Damadola."
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence — helped by area tribesmen and other Afghans — began monitoring Khan's home after al-Libbi's confession, officials said.
The Pakistani officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity due to the issue's sensitivity, believe at least four foreign militants may have died in last week's attack, including an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of al-Zawahri. Also killed were 13 villagers, including Bakhtpur Khan, whose home had been the site of the 2005 meeting, the officials said.
One official said the bodies of the four militants believed killed in the strike were removed by a local pro-Taliban cleric at the dinner "and then were shifted to an undisclosed location."
The dinner, which may have gathered as many as a dozen al-Qaida extremists, began soon after sundown and lasted for about 90 minutes, the second intelligence official said.
"Some people left the house around eight. Some people left around midnight," the official said. The strike was launched a few hours later, the official added.
news.yahoo.com
Pakistani agents reached Damadola soon after attack’
Staff Report
DAMADOLA: Pakistani intelligence agents were at Damadola village, Bajaur Agency, soon after the US air strike and “collected some evidence” to prove the presence of foreigners at one of the destroyed homes, a relative of one of the dead tribesmen said on Friday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that through a “tribal source” in Damadola ‘foreigners’ had been invited to be the guests of wanted local militant Maulana Faqir Muhammad.
“Soon after the air strike, several Pakistani security agents based in Khar, Bajaur Agency’s regional headquarters, disguised themselves as visitors and visited the site to collect evidence about the presence of No 2 Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zahawri,” the relative claimed.
However, there was no independent confirmation of the claim. He said, “There were some foreign guests at the dinner. I saw some of them, but could not recognise any of them as al-Zawahri. They were graceful-looking foreigners.”
Meanwhile, Shah Zaman, the relative of dead tribesman Bakhtfoor, whose 11 family members were killed in the air strike, said 13 civilians including five children had been killed.
“A total of 13 people were killed and not 18 as reported in the media,” he told Daily Times. He said three people – 40-year-old Bashir, 12-year-old Asya and eight-year-old Subhana – were wounded.
About the presence of empty graves, he said that in the beginning nobody knew how many people were killed. “Nobody was in his or her senses since the shock was so intense. Several family members, presumed to be dead in the attack, were found alive hours after the air strike, Shah Zaman added.
Reports about four foreigners being killed in the attack were a “lame excuse” to justify the air strike, he said, adding, “No foreigner was present nor was killed. Where is the evidence?”
Shah Zaman said military officials condoled with the victims’ families on Thursday and offered “money as compensation”. He gave no further details.
“Nobody was removed or taken away from the area,” he added.
“What is the use of living in a country where your government can’t protect you from foreign aggression,” Muhammad Rahim, whose two children were killed in the attack, told Daily Times. |
