· Reports cast doubt on presence of al-Qaida target

Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets across Pakistan yesterday to condemn an American air strike aimed at al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that left at least 18 people dead.

Pakistani tribal villagers living in the neighboring village of Inayat Qala, about six kilometers (four miles) from the northwestern Pakistani village of Damadola, near the Afghan border, where airstrikes killed 17 people, raised their hands to condemn the United States and Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for supporting the US against al-Qaida, Saturday, Jan 14, 2006. Villagers whose homes were destroyed in a U.S airstrike targeting al-Qaida's number 2 Ayman al-Zawahri denied Saturday he was ever there, as thousands marched in three separate protests against the attack. One mob set fire to the office of a U.S.-funded aid group. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)

Up to 10,000 people reportedly protested at rallies in the largest city, Karachi. Many chanted: "Death to America!" Demonstrators demanded the resignation of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf. Smaller protests were staged in other towns and cities, including Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar.

The protests across Pakistan put further pressure on General Musharraf, whose close relationship with the United States has made him unpopular at home.

"America raised the bogey of Zawahiri to provide justification for this attack," said Meraj-ul-Huda, a local leader of Pakistan's main Islamic alliance, Mattahida Majlis-e-Amal, who was attending the demonstration in Karachi.

Another member of the alliance, Liaqat Baloch, told protesters in Lahore that Gen Musharraf should stand down. "It is a threat to our sovereignty and shame for Musharraf's government that it failed to protect the country and the lives of its people," he said.

The rallies followed violent protests by thousands of tribesmen on Saturday in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border where the attack took place. The White House has remained tight-lipped over the missile strike, said to have been carried out by the CIA on Friday, using unmanned drone aircraft.

David Almacy, a White House spokesman, would not even confirm that the attack had been carried out by the US. He said only that "President Musharraf and Pakistan is a valued ally and partner in the war on terror".

However, a Republican senator, John McCain, defended the action yesterday. "We have to go where these people are, and we have to take them out," he said in an interview on CBS television. While expressing sympathy with the anger in Pakistan, he added: "I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again."

A remote-controlled Predator aircraft is believed to have fired missiles at houses in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur district. American intelligence had suggested that Zawahiri had been invited to a dinner there, although it is now doubted that he was present.

Zawahiri is married to a woman from the Mahmoond tribe, predominant in the area around Damadola. A Pakistani intelligence official cited by the Associated Press news agency said he may have been in the area to be with her on the Islamic holiday of Eid-ul-Adha which was celebrated last week.

AP quoted another Pakistani source who said that two local clerics, known for harbouring al-Qaida personnel, did attend the dinner, but left hours before the air strike. The source said there was no indication that Zawahiri had been at the scene.

The New York Times quoted a member of the regional parliament, Sahibzada Haroon Rashid, who said he saw a drone aircraft surveying the area hours before the attack and was later wakened by huge explosions. He said three houses had been razed.

"There is nothing left," he told the newspaper. "Pieces of the missiles are scattered all around. The impact of the explosions has been huge. Everything has been blackened in a 100-metre radius."

Women and children were said to have been among the dead. But there were conflicting reports, citing Pakistani intelligence officials, about whether any militants were killed. Some news reports said that up to 11 extremists had died.

The government in Islamabad condemned the attack, but repeated its call to Pakistanis to refrain from harbouring terrorists. In a speech broadcast on state television yesterday, Gen Musharraf said: "If we keep sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be good. Remember what I say."

Officially, the Pakistani government does not allow the 20,000 US troops in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, although a large number of combatants are thought to have sought refuge in the rugged and remote border region.

In recent weeks, though, there has been a string of attacks on the Pakistani side of the border that many suspect were carried out by the US. Eight people were killed in a cross-border raid last weekend.

Washington has offered $25m (£14m) for the capture of the Egyptian-born Zawahiri, who is regarded as the main operational brains behind al-Qaida. He has also become the terrorist group's most visible face, appearing in numerous videotaped messages in the past year. Al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden, has not been seen for more than a year.