A dinner invitation to al-Qaeda's second-in-command triggered a US airstrike in Pakistan's tribal region but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said today.
Shah Zaman, who lost his three children in a pre-dawn US air strike on his village, walks through the rubble of his house this morning
Pakistan condemned Friday's strike, which killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and summoned US ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest.
There were anti-American demonstrations in several towns and cities today, and supporters of Islamist and secular parties mustered close to 10,000 people for a rally in the southern city of Karachi.
Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans.
The Foreign Ministry said foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.
The strike was reportedly ordered based on information Zawahri and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been invited to a dinner to celebrate this week's Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
Another intelligence official said four US aircraft had fired four missiles that destroyed three houses in the attack on the village.
Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there.
"He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official said.
Al Arabiya television quoted a source it said had contact with al-Qaeda saying Zawahri was alive.
The US government has not commented, but US sources familiar with the operation said it was too early to determine his fate and the remains of the dead would have to be examined to determine whether Zawahri was among them.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitive nature, said the airstrike was carried out on the basis of "very good" intelligence indicating Zawahri was at the targeted location.
Another Pakistani intelligence official said two local Islamist clerics, known for harbouring al-Qaeda militants, had attended the dinner but left hours before the airstrike at 3.00am.
The US sources said CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack. A Pakistani intelligence official said four missiles had been fired.
Washington has offered $25 million each for Zawahri and bin Laden, who have been on the run since US-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in 2001.
They have long been thought to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border under the protection of Pashtun tribes.
The angry reaction to the strike comes just days after Pakistan, an important ally in the US-led war on terrorism, lodged a strong protest with US-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in a nearby tribal area last weekend had killed eight people.
Zawahri is seen as the brains behind al-Qaeda and has been its public face, denouncing the United States in repeated video messages, the most recent of which was broadcast this month.
Killing him would be a major victory for Washington in its battle against al-Qaeda, which has lost much of its capability to launch attacks globally after a string of high profile arrests in Pakistan and elsewhere, analysts say.
Zawahri, a doctor involved in Egypt's radical Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s, teamed up with bin Laden in Pakistan in the 1980s when both were involved in a jihad, backed by the United States, to end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.