Pakistan fury as CIA airstrike on village kills 18

Telegraph | News | Pakistan fury as CIA airstrike on village kills 18

Pakistan fury as CIA airstrike on village kills 18
Imtiaz Ali in Damadola and Massoud Ansari in Karachi
(Filed: 15/01/2006)

Angry Pakistani officials have condemned an American airstrike on a remote village near the Afghan border which the US said was aimed at Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command.

Pakistan is preparing to lodge a formal diplomatic protest over the attack, which killed at least 18 people, because it was launched from four pilotless aircraft which intruded 30 miles into Pakistani air space from Afghanistan. But a senior American government official said that Pakistan would have been informed before an attack on a such high-profile target on its soil.

Tribesmen pray at the graves of the airstrike victims
Tribesmen pray at the graves of the airstrike victims in Damadola

American television networks initially reported the attack as a successful CIA strike, citing unnamed American intelligence officials who claimed that al-Zawahiri was likely to have been at the compound.

However, there was confusion amid the rubble of the mud houses in the Berkandi area of Damadola, which Pakistani officials said had been struck by as many as 10 missiles fired from the remote-controlled drones. Five women and five children were among those killed and 14 of the dead were said to be from the same family.

One local resident, Sherzada, 25, said that he had seen "spy" planes flying over the village for three nights before the attack.

A senior Pakistan intelligence official strongly denied reports that al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda number two, was anywhere near the village that was at the centre of the attack.

"We have checked all our sources. There was no sign of al-Zawahiri's presence in the village," the ISI official, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Telegraph. "All those killed in the airstrike are innocent civilians. They [the US] are now trying to cover this up by leaking faulty information to the media."

But when one local, who would not give his name, was asked whether he knew bin Laden's right-hand man, he said: "Yes, I do know him, but we don't have any connection with him." Pakistan is a frontline ally of America in its war on terror, but US forces stationed in Afghanistan are not allowed to carry out any attacks on its territory without prior permission.

In Friday's strike, the target appeared to be a cluster of three houses, one of which was the venue for a party. The official number of dead is 18 but locals are saying that as many as 25 have been killed, though only 13 graves were to be found yesterday. Contrary to local custom, the bodies were buried quickly, with no formal funeral arrangements, adding to confusion and suspicion throughout the region.

Other villagers denied any knowledge of al-Zawahiri. Sher Afzal, 45, the brother of one victim, Bakht Pur, 65, said: "We totally reject that we know al-Qaeda. We don't have any connection with al-Qaeda."

Yesterday an estimated 8,000 tribesmen, led by Haroon Rasheed, a parliamentarian and member of the radical Islamic party Jamate Islami, gathered in a nearby town to protest at the airstrike. Damadola is a stronghold of Gul Badin Hikmatyar - a mujahideen leader who is engaged in guerrilla warfare against American forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

A senior American government official said the CIA had been following a group of "foreigners" who arrived in the village, after what was believed to be a tip-off from a paid informant that al-Zawahiri was among their number. The group is believed to have been divided between the three houses destroyed by the missile strikes.

Al-Zawahiri declared in a video after the July 7 London bombings that al-Qaeda's battle was being carried to "enemy territory". He blamed Tony Blair for the attack on the capital.