By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Pakistani provincial authorities said four or five foreign terrorists were killed in last week's US missile strike that has strained relations with this Muslim nation, a key ally in US President George. W. Bush's war on terror.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, on the eve of a trip Wednesday to Washington, said that despite the importance of ties with the United States, attacks inside Pakistan "cannot be condoned."
Pakistani intelligence officials have said the target of the attack was al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, who was invited to a dinner celebrating an Islamic holiday in the village but sent some aides instead.
US counterterrorism officials, however, haven't ruled out that Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant was killed in the attack.
In the first official confirmation by Pakistani authorities that militants were killed, the administration of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan said in a statement Tuesday that the four or five bodies of "foreign terrorists," who were among 10 to 12 extremists attending the dinner, were taken away "by their companions." It did not identify the dead militants.