Saturday, January 14, 2006

Zawahiri not among those killed in Pakistan

Apparently, US planes acted on fauly intelligence in the attack in Pakistan Joshuapundit reported on earlier. And Zawahiri was definitely not killed. Instead, the victims appear to be Pakistani civilians.

Pakistan made a formal protest to the American government over this, and demonstrations were reported in Lahore and Karachi.

According to Pakistan’s Federation Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao "The US planes apparently acted on wrong information while trying to target some top al-Qaeda leaders, thereby killing Pakistani civilians".

The minister also denied the removal of five dead bodies of al Qaeda leaders, as earlier reported.

This is intriging because the US information came from informants, and the buiding targeted was in a known `safe area' for al Qaeda.

Two possibilities: either false info was given to suspected collaberators within al Qaeda to smoke them out or Zawahiri and company were tipped off beforehand and vacated the scene.

Either way, not a good day in Pakistan for the opponents of al Qaeda.

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