PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Al-Qaida’s second-in-command attended a meeting last year at the home that was hit by U.S. missiles last week in a strike believed to have killed at least four of the terror network’s operatives, Pakistani intelligence officials said Saturday.
The latest revelation came a day after thousands of Pakistani protesters took to the streets, chanting ‘‘Death to America’’ and calling for holy war as outrage persisted over the air strike that devastated a remote border village.
Ayman al-Zawahri, the apparent target of the U.S. attack Jan. 13, met his deputy, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Damadola last year, the security official said.
Al-Libbi, a Libyan, had confessed to Pakistani interrogators after his capture in May 2005 he met al-Zawahri at Damadola, near the Afghan border, earlier in the year. Al-Libbi was captured after a shootout in northwestern Pakistan.
Another high-ranking intelligence official confirmed al-Libbi’s account of the meeting, which took place a few months before his arrest. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
‘‘His statement was later verified, and we were able to confirm that al-Zawahri visited Damadola,’’ the first official said.
The home was among three destroyed in the pre-dawn air strike that killed 13 villagers.
Officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity, said they think at least four foreign militants also may have died, including an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of al-Zawahri.
Al-Zawahri was said to have skipped the meeting and was not killed. AP
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