18 civilians killed by air-strikes in Bajaur area of NW Pakistan     
'Pakistan Times' Special Correspondent  

ISLAMABAD: Eighteen people were killed and many injured in powerful explosions destroying one house and damaging other hutments in Bajaur Tribal Agency near Peshawar early morning Friday. 

Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations confirmed the deaths but made no comment as to how explosions took place. 

Bajaur is one of the eight tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan. Residents said, explosions took place by the bombardment of US Coalition forces which are operating in Afghanistan. These forces are targeting the hideouts of Talibans who are engaging US ground forces in hilly regions on Pak-Afghan border. 

As the reports say, unidentified aircraft from Afghanistan killed as many as 18 people after firing two or three missiles into a village early Friday, eyewitnesses and a security official said. 

The incident in Bajaur came just days after cross-border firing, by US-led forces in Afghanistan, in the nearby Waziristan area last weekend killed eight people. 

A resident of Bajaur said the explosions were caused by firing from unidentified aircraft on the village of Damadola at about 3 am. According to another witness “some 18 people have been killed”. 

Some sources say that two aircraft had come in from Afghanistan and fired two or three missiles. “The casualties may be much higher. People are very angry. They are not allowing access, so exact figures of deaths and wounded people are not available,” he said. 

According to BBC, the local tribesmen had reported that allied warplanes had been busy targeting suspected Taliban hideouts for the past few days. A touring journalist to the site of bombings informed the BBC that the dead had been buried. 

It is feared that the dead could well exceed 18. In the past, about eight persons had died due to such bombings and the government had lodged strong protests to the American administration. 

Thousands of local tribesmen, chanting "God is Great," demonstrated against the attack, claiming the victims were local villagers without terrorist links and had never hosted Ayman al-Zawahri. 

Two senior Pakistani officials told Associated Press that the US Agency acted on incorrect information in launching the attack early Friday in the northwestern village of Damadola, near the Afghan border. 

"Their information was wrong, and our investigations conclude that they acted on a false information," said a senior Pakistani official with direct knowledge of Pakistan's investigations into the attack. 

His account was confirmed by a senior government official who said al-Zawahri "was not there." Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. 

Washington had no comment on the reports that the attack was aimed at al-Zawahri, who has a $25 million U.S. government bounty on his head. 

Info Minister Condemns 

Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, called the "incident" in Damadola "highly condemnable." 

The Foreign Ministry later issued a statement saying a protest had been filed with the U.S. Embassy. 

"According to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that in all probability was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan," the Foreign Ministry said. 

"The investigations are still continuing. Meanwhile the Foreign Office has lodged a protest with the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad." 

U.S. Embassy spokesman Rakesh Surampudi said the protest had not been received by Saturday evening. 

A foreign reporter who visited Damadola about 12 hours after the attack saw three destroyed houses, hundreds of yards apart. Villagers had buried at least 15 people, including women and children, and were digging for more bodies in the rubble. 

Villagers denied hosting al-Zawahri or any other member of al-Qaida or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, and said all the dead were local people. 

Yet another report says that the deputy leader of al-Qaeda was not in a Pakistani village near the Afghan border which was hit by in an apparent missile attack. 

Zawahiri has eluded capture since 2001 despite a $25m bounty on his head. 

Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command is regarded as the ideological brains behind the al-Qaeda network. 

The Egyptian has also become its most visible spokesperson, issuing a number of video and audio tapes, whilst Osama Bin Laden has not been seen or heard from for more than a year. 

More than 8,000 tribesmen staged a peaceful protest in a nearby town Saturday to condemn the airstrike, which one speaker described as "open terrorism." 

Police dispersed a smaller protest in another town using tear gas. A mob burned the office of a U.S.-backed aid agency near Damadola, but nobody was injured, residents said. 

NBC News reported that U.S. and Pakistani officials said Predator drones had fired as many as 10 missiles at Damadola in the Bajur tribal region. 

The official said that hours before the strike some unidentified guests had arrived at the home of a tribesman named Shah Zaman. 

Zaman, who said three of his children were killed when his home was destroyed, said that he was a "law-abiding" laborer and had no ties to al-Zawahri or any other militants. 

"I don't know him. He was not at my home. No foreigner was at my home when the planes came and dropped bombs," Zaman said. 

Local lawmaker Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, who visited Damadola soon after the attack, said the dead had been buried and that no foreigners were among them. They came from a local family of jewelers, he said, adding that none of the bodies was burned so badly that identification was difficult. 

In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials all said they had no information on the reports concerning al-Zawahri. A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, Lt. Mike Cody, referred questions on the matter to the Pentagon. 

Doctors said that at least 17 people died in the attack, but residents of Damadola, a Pashtun tribal hamlet on a hillside about four miles from the Afghan border, said more than 30 died. They recounted hearing aircraft fly overhead before explosions in the village that were felt miles away. 

Speaking as he dug through the rubble of his home, Zaman said he heard planes at around 2:40 a.m. and then eight huge explosions. He said planes had been flying over the village for three or four days. 

At another destroyed house, Sami Ullah, a 17-year-old student, said 24 of his family members were killed and vowed he would "seek justice from God." 

The attack was the latest in a series of strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan that have not been explained by authorities but are widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or militants. 

Perspective 

Aircraft from Afghanistan killed as many as 18 people after firing two or three missiles into a village in Pakistan on Friday. 

The incident in Bajaur tribal region came just days after Pakistan lodged a strong protest with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in the nearby Waziristan area last weekend killed eight people. 

A resident of Bajaur, which borders Afghanistan’s insurgent-troubled Kunar province, said the explosions were caused by firing from unidentified aircraft on the village of Damadola at about 03:00 PST [20:00 GMT] midnight between Thursday and Friday. 

“According to our information, 18 people have been killed,” said Shah Jehan, a shopkeeper who lives about one mile from the village. 

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said he did not know the cause of the blasts, but added: “People heard explosions and as a result, there were a number of casualties. My information is that 11 to 14 people have been killed.” 

An official source said two aircraft had come in from Afghanistan and fired two or three missiles. 

“The casualties may be much higher. People are very angry. They are not allowing access, so exact figures of deaths and wounded people are not available,” he said. 

Damadola has been a stronghold of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, a pro-Taliban group banned by Pakistan in January 2002. 

Members of the group might be involved in attacks on U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and the missile strikes might have been launched in retaliation, some sources viewed. 

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O’Hara, said there were no reports of U.S. forces operating in that area. 

Damadola is close to the Afghan border, about 125 miles northwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. 

Bin Laden Deputy 

Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been among victims of a US strike Friday on a Pakistani village which killed 18 people, ABC television reported. 

The sources said five of those killed in the raid were "high level Al-Qaeda figures" whose bodies are undergoing forensic tests for identification, ABC said. They said Osama bin Laden's deputy, who has been known to stay at houses in the village, may have been one of the victims. However, on Friday the US Defense Department denied having conducted operations in the area. 

Zawahiri is a doctor who has become Al-Qaeda's most senior spokesman in videos released in recent months as bin Laden keeps a low profile. He appeared in a new video released last week. 

Nearby Waziristan has been the scene of clashes between security forces and al-Qaeda militants for more than two years, but there have been no previous reports of fighting in Bajaur. 

On Monday, Pakistan lodged a strong protest with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in the Mir Ali area of Waziristan the last Saturday had killed eight people, including a woman, and wounded nine. 

Residents said they believed a helicopter gunship had attacked the house of a religious scholar who supports Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrillas. 

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said U.S. authorities had denied their troops were involved in the Waziristan incident. It said it was not known if U.S.-led troops had been behind the firing but they were responsible for the Afghan side of the border. 

U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001 pursuing the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies, including Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities. 

Tribesmen Protest 

Meanwhile, thousands of tribesmen protested on Saturday against an alleged US air strike. 

Thousands of people gathered at a stadium near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal zone, close to the village of Damadola where Friday's attack happened. 

The crowd chanted anti-US slogans. Naib Ameer of Jamaat-i-Islami and member National Assembly Haroon Rashid said that Bajaur will mourn the incident but it would yet to be finalized. 

Pakistan lodged a protest Monday with the U.S. military in Afghanistan after a reported U.S. air strike killed eight people in the North Waziristan tribal region last Saturday. Pakistan says it does not allow U.S. forces to cross the border in pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. 

War against Terrorism 

Meanwhile, Vice Chief of Army Staff, General Ahsan Saleem Hayat has said that terrorism would be defeated at all costs as it threatens the very foundation of the country. 

He was talking to troops during his visit to Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency. 

General Ahsan Saleem Hayat said that after busting terrorists’ hideouts still some remnants were running for safe heavens but they would be eliminated shortly as security forces have tightened their noose around them. 

The Vice Chief of Army Staff reiterated that there would be no let up in war against terrorism till it was taken to its logical conclusion. 

“Pakistan is signatory to 11 out of 12 United Nations conventions on counter terrorism and we would not relent till the menace is completely wiped-out of our sacred soil”, he added. 

Paying rich tributes to the troops of Peshawar Corps, the Vice Chief of Army Staff said that it has lived up to its traditions. 

Moreover, he said that the sacrifices of the officers and men have not only elevated Pakistan’s stature in the comity of nations but also made Pakistan more safer place. •