Khaleej Times Online : Pakistan probes Zawahiri links after airstrike

Pakistan probes Zawahiri links after airstrike

(AFP) | November 1, 2006

KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces were on alert for more protests Wednesday after an air raid that killed 80 people at a religious school visited in the past by Al Qaeda number two Ayman Al Zawahiri.

Egyptian-born Zawahiri, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was not in the madrassa in Bajaur agency at the time of Monday’s attack but had frequented it previously, a security official told a briefing late Tuesday.

Another former visitor was the alleged mastermind of August’s foiled London airliners plot, identified as Abu Obaida Al Misri, Al Qaeda’s operational commander in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, which borders Bajaur.

Al Misri was also a mentor to Rashid Rauf, a Briton arrested by Pakistan in August in connection with the alleged conspiracy to blow up transatlantic jets, the security official said.

‘The madrassa that was targeted was frequently visited by Al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Al Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al Misri,’ the security official said on condition of anonymity.

Security officials said they were guarding Wednesday against the possibility of militant reprisals for the airstrike on the seminary, particularly with Britain’s Prince Charles in the middle of a high-profile visit to Pakistan.

More than 15,000 pro-Taleban tribesmen chanted slogans against Pakistan and the United States Tuesday at Khar, the main town in Bajaur which is near the site of the helicopter attack, while there were smaller rallies nationwide.

Villagers said the dead were mainly students and alleged US involvement. But Pakistan said the Islamic school or madrassa was a virtual factory for suicide bombers intending to launch attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The protest passed peacefully but was marked by calls from an Islamic cleric for more suicide attacks against ‘the enemy’. Gun-toting tribesmen also burned effigies of US President George W. Bush.

Another 5,000 gathered in the Khyber tribal zone.

Islamist leaders accused the United States of either ordering the strike on the madrassa or of actually carrying out the raid using Predator drones.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has said Zawahiri escaped a CIA Predator raid in Bajaur in January. Reports said at the time that Al Misri may have also died but the security official said they were untrue.

Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said there was ‘no US role’ in the attack. Musharraf insisted that no civilians died in the raid, Pakistan’s deadliest ever against insurgents.

The unrest meant Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were forced to cancel a visit Tuesday to the northwestern city of Peshawar, near the tribal belt, during they were meant to visit a moderate madrassa.

But there were only small protests in Peshawar involving around 1,500 people. Other rallies took place in cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan.