Pakistan condemned Friday?s strike, which killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and summoned US ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans. The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.

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 told Reuters. 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 3.00 a.m. (2200 GMT).

Anti-American anger

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 after the September 11 attacks. The two 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.

Awahri 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.

NATION WIDE RALLY

Thousands meet in Pakistan to protest against US strike

■ 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 took place in other towns and cities.

Hundreds chanted anti-US slogans in Samarbagh, near Bajaur. 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. Pakistan condemned the 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 the remains of the dead would have to be examined to determine whether he was among them.

Zeeshan HAIDER