Angry Pakistani officials say al-Zawahiri was not in the village illegally attacked by US

Ayman al-Zawahiri was not in the village that was attacked yesterday Pakistani officials have said. But the attack did leave at least 18 local people dead.

The US military has denied knowledge of the attack, which US media reported had been carried out by the CIA.

But Islamabad condemned the strike and called the US ambassador to complain. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference the Pakistani government wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur".

The raid took place in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area. A Predator drone reportedly fired missiles at a particular housing compound in the village. Tribesmen there are convinced the strike was the work of the Americans and are very angry at the attack. reported here

Reporters who reached Damadola spoke of three houses hundreds of metres apart that had been destroyed. Shah Zaman said he lost two of his sons and a daughter. "I ran out and saw planes. I ran toward a nearby mountain with my wife. When we were running we heard three more explosions. I saw my home being hit."

According to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that, in all probability, was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement, adding it had complained to the US envoy in Islamabad.

The US has about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, but Pakistan does not allow them to operate across the border.