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   From: o@o.org   
      
   US terrorists murder civilians increasing 'terror'   
      
      
      
   Pakistan protesters slam US airstrike   
      
      
   Protesters chanting "Death to America" are staging nationwide protests   
   across Pakistan against a purported CIA airstrike that the government says   
   killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target, top al-Qaida   
   lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri.   
      
      
      
   More than 600 people endured rain and cold on Sunday to rally against   
   Friday's airstrike in the town of Samarbagh, about 50km east of Damadola.   
      
   The airstrike killed 18 people, described by villagers as innocent   
   civilians.   
      
   Protesters chanted "Death to America", "Death to Bush", and "A friend of   
   America is a traitor", while also denouncing General Pervez Musharraf, the   
   Pakistani presidentfor co-operating with the United States.   
      
   A rally speaker said Washington was targeting Pakistan because of its   
   nuclear weapons.   
      
   "Pakistan is a nuclear power, and America has tightened the siege against   
   it," said Aizaz-ul Mulk Afkari, a leader from Hezb-ul Mujahidin group.   
      
   Collective anger   
      
   A coalition of anti-US Islamic groups planned more protests elsewhere later   
   in the day. The previous day, about 8000 tribesmen staged a rally in the   
   town of Inayat Qala, and a mob set fire to the office of a US-backed aid   
   agency in a nearby village.   
      
   President Musharraf, meanwhile, warned his countrymen not to harbour   
   militants, saying it would only increase violence within Pakistan's borders.   
      
   "If we kept sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be   
   good," Musharraf said in a speech broadcast on Sunday by state-run Pakistan   
   Television.   
      
   But his government has protested to the US Embassy amid growing frustration   
   over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the frontier, apparently   
   directed at Islamic fighters.   
      
   Pakistani officials said earlier indications from US intelligence sources   
   that al-Zawahiri might have died in Friday's missile raid were "not true".   
      
   Tensions remained high on Sunday near the village of Damadola, the site of   
   the attack in the Bajur tribal area on the Afghan border, after police   
   tear-gassed thousands of protesters who torched a US-funded aid agency   
   office on Saturday.   
      
   Aljazeera's Pakistan bureau chief Ahmed Zaidan reported that thousands of   
   people demonstrated in the area against the US air strike on Saturday.   
      
   An estimated 5000 people had gathered at a stadium near Khar, the main town   
   in the Bajur tribal zone.   
      
   Offices torched   
      
   Some demonstrators on Saturday set fire to the offices of Associated   
   Development Construction, a non-governmental organisation funded by the US   
   Agency for International Development, an official at the aid group said.   
      
   Zaidan said Pakistani Muslim organisations had called for protests on Sunday   
   against the US presence and violations in the country.   
      
   Earlier, CNN had quoted sources saying the CIA ordered Friday's strike after   
   receiving intelligence information that al-Zawahiri was in a village near   
   the border.   
      
   ABC News quoted Pakistani military sources as saying that five of those   
   killed were "high-level" al-Qaida figures.   
      
   But tribesmen in Damadola village in the Bajur tribal area said only locals   
   were killed - 18 of their kinfolk, including eight women and five children.   
      
   Infidel forces   
      
   "We are the victims of infidel forces and God will destroy the infidels,"   
   wept 70-year-old villager Mohammad Rahim Khan, whose three grandchildren   
   were killed in one of the three blasts reported by residents.   
      
   "The US cannot do this without Pakistan's support. We are leaving it to God   
   to give us justice," said the children's father, 35-year-old Mohammed Khan.   
      
   Although the toll and the identities of the dead have not yet been   
   established, local residents said five women and five children were among   
   the dead and that all were tribespeople.   
      
   Pakiistan's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Ryan Crocker, the US   
   ambassador, on Saturday and handed over a formal protest about the incident.   
      
   "According to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the   
   area and that in all probability was targeted from across the border in   
   Afghanistan," a ministry statement said.   
      
   Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, the information minister, said: "We want to assure the   
   people we will not allow such an incident to reoccur," reading a statement   
   which termed the attack as "highly condemnable".   
      
   DNA tests   
      
   The FBI anticipates performing DNA tests on the victims, a law enforcement   
   official said on Saturday.   
      
   In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and   
   intelligence officials did not immediately provide additional details about   
   the attack.   
      
      
      
   DNA tests to determine the victims' identities are expected to be conducted   
   in the US, according to the law enforcement official who spoke on condition   
   of anonymity because a formal request for such testing had not been made   
   public.   
      
   A Pakistani intelligence source said he had been told by US officials the   
   strike was ordered based on information that al-Zawahiri and Mullah Mohammad   
   Omar, the toppled Taliban leader, had been invited to a dinner to celebrate   
   this week's Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.   
      
   They had no confirmation, however, that either had been there at the time of   
   the attack at about 3am on Friday (2200 GMT on Thursday).   
      
   Taliban denial   
      
   Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban commander, said no Taliban commander had   
   been at the dinner.   
      
   On the other hand, Major Chris Karns, a spokesman at US Central Command in   
   Florida, the command responsible for the region, said there had been no   
   official report of an attack in Pakistan.   
      
      
      
   Incidentally, unidentified Pakistani officials have been quoted in news   
   reports as saying that up to 11 extremists are believed to be among the   
   dead.   
      
   One Damadola resident said three or four foreigners had come from   
   Afghanistan for Eid.   
      
   Another said he had seen bodies of at least two people who seemed to have   
   been outsiders.   
      
   "Where these bodies have gone, I don't know," he said.   
      
   Pakistan's The News newspaper said the villagers had been buried after a   
   mass funeral led by Maulana Faqir Muhammad, a cleric wanted for giving   
   shelter to suspected al-Qaida members.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)