ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s president told a senior American official Saturday the United States must not repeat airstrikes like the one that apparently was aimed at al-Qaida but killed civilians in a remote village, as officials sought to soothe public outrage over the attack.
Also Saturday, two Pakistani intelligence officials said a captured al-Qaida leader informed interrogators that he had met Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, last year at one of the homes that was hit.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assured visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns that Pakistan would not waver in its support of the war on terrorism, but said such airstrikes must not be repeated, a Foreign Ministry official said. The attack prompted nationwide protests calling for Musharraf’s ouster.
Musharraf apparently was referring to his country’s long-standing policy of prohibiting the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan from pursuing militants across the border into Pakistan or attacking them in the country without permission. Government officials have said they were not informed of last week’s attack ahead of time.
The comments were Musharraf’s first publicized reaction to the Jan. 13 attack on the village of Damadola near the border with Afghanistan.
The strike, which hit three homes in the mountainous Bajur tribal region, is believed to have killed at least four of al-Zawahri’s close associates and at least 13 civilians, including women and children.
Pakistani officials suspect at least four foreign militants died in last week’s attack, including Egyptian Midhat Mursi, an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of al-Zawahri. Mursi has a $5 million bounty on his head and is on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists.
One official said the four bodies were removed by a pro-Taliban cleric who was at a dinner with them, “and then were shifted to an undisclosed location.”
Pakistani and U.S. officials reportedly have said the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri skipped the meeting and was not killed in the attack.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Libyan-born Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was captured in Pakistan in May, told interrogators he met al-Zawahri last year at one of the homes that was hit.
The two are believed to have met at the house of Bakhtpur Khan, who is listed among the 13 civilians believed to have died in the airstrike.
One of the intelligence officials said al-Libbi’s statement was later verified, and it was confirmed that he had met al-Zawahri in Damadola.
Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two attempts to assassinate Musharraf over Pakistan’s alliance with the United States. After his arrest, he was turned over to Washington for further investigation.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence – helped by tribesmen and Afghans – began monitoring Khan’s home after al-Libbi’s confession, the intelligence officials said.
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