Pakistan: Thousands of people rallied across Pakistan yesterday to protest against a US airstrike in a tribal region that killed at least 18 people but missed its apparent target, al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al Zawahri.
Pakistani officials say there is no evidence Osama bin Laden's deputy was there when aircraft struck Damadola village in Bajaur tribal region, near the Afghan border, early on Friday.
Up to 10,000 men, women and children rallied in the southern city of Karachi to denounce the attack in which several women and children were killed.
"We condemn attack in Bajaur," read one banner.
"America raised the bogey of Zawahri to provide justification for this attack," said Meraj-ul-Huda, a local leader of Pakistan's main Islamist alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Islamists, who oppose president Pervez Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terrorism, issued the call for nationwide protests, but secular groups also joined the rally in Karachi.
Small demonstrations also took place in other towns and cities.
Anger has been building in Pakistan over repeated US attacks, and on Saturday thousands of people protested in a village in Bajaur.
Pakistan this week 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.
The country condemned Friday's airstrike and summoned US ambassador Ryan Crocker to lodge a protest.
Pakistani security officials say a dinner invitation to Zawahri prompted the US strike but he failed to show up.
The US government has not commented, but US sources familiar with the operation said that the remains of the dead would have to be examined to determine whether Ayman al Zawahri was among them. - (Reuters)