CIA Targets Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan - Pakistan Says He Was Not at Site & Protests Attack (updated 1/14)

LAST UPDATE AT 10:00 am ET January 14. CIA airstrike against Al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan - CIA got "good reporting" on al-Zawahiri's presence in a building and it ordered the Predator airstrike. But AP reports on Saturday morning that "Pakistan's assessment was the al-Qaida suspect was not at the site and the CIA had launched the attack based on incorrect information." And Pakistan filed a formal protest over the airstrike on its territory with the U.S. Embassy

ABC News: "Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness. Eighteen people were killed, according to the villagers who said women and children were among the fatalities. But Pakistani officials tell ABC News that five of those killed were high-level al Qaeda figures, and their bodies are now undergoing forensic tests for positive identification." MSNBC: "CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. sources said." This effort has developed over the past few days as intel has indicated his presence in Damadola, a small village near the Afghan border.

Contributing Experts will appear throughout the weekend on TV interviews to discuss this matter - see Walid Phares' website for a schedule of his appearance. Here is the FBI's Most Wanted poster of al-Zawahiri with the $25 million reward. MSNBC has a bio of al-Zawahiri, and here is a Reuters profile of him as "brain" of Al Qaeda's "body." The letter from al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, dated July 9, 2005, is available here. Pakistan's "Daily News" site reports on the attack. Here are pictures of attack site from "Daily Times" website and AP through CNN: