Pakistanis protest U.S. terror raid on village

Unnamed operatives of either the Pentagon or the CIA bombed homes Jan. 13 in the Pakistani village of Damadola. The explosions killed between 18 and 30 civilians. Thousands of Pakistanis went into the streets all over Pakistan to condemn this terrorist attack against the Pakistani population.

Jan. 18, Karachi, the banner reads: "We condemn the barbaric U.S. bombing in Bajour."

Unlike the roadside bombings of U.S. troops in Iraq or suicide bombings carried out against occupying powers in Palestine, whatever U.S. force carried out the attack in Pakistan was exposed to minimal personal risk. The bombs were fired at a safe distance from the village where they exploded.

In Karachi on Jan. 15, some 10,000 people protested the bombing. They chanted, “Death to America” and “Stop bombing innocent people,” and burned U.S. flags. They also demanded that U.S. forces leave Afghanistan. The Pentagon invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and still has 20,000 U.S. troops there, along with others from the U.S.’s NATO allies.

Demonstrators condemned Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, a military dictator closely allied to the U.S.’s “war against terrorism,” for being a U.S. puppet. “Our rulers are traitors,” and “Our rulers are cowards and surrogates of America,” protesters chanted in the capital, Islamabad.

“There will be more ... bigger protests,” said Shahid Shamsi, spokesman for an alliance of Islamic groups. “Pakistani civilians, including children, were killed,” he said. “Principles cannot be broken in the name of [fighting] terrorism.” (Associated Press, Jan. 16)

The Musharraf government was forced to condemn the bombing attack. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the attack “highly condemnable.” At the same time, Musharraf warned the population not to shelter those forces fighting against U.S. rule in the region, which he called “terrorists.”

U.S. officials claim the attack was aimed at Ayman al-Zawahiri, whom they describe as “the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda.” So far there is no indication anyone was killed but children, women and men who lived in the three homes in Damadola hit by the bombs.

The Musharraf government with U.S. help is trying to quickly examine the remains of the people killed in Damadola in the hope of finding something that proves they succeeded in killing Zawahiri or some other Al-Qaeda figures.

According to the Jan. 16 New York Times, “The raid is believed to have been carried out by the CIA, using missiles fired by a remotely piloted Predator aircraft, on the basis of information gathered in an aggressive effort to track Zawahiri. An American counterterrorism official declined to discuss details of the attack, but said: ‘My understanding is that it was based on pretty darned good information.’”

According to the Times, the U.S. has only 100 troops in Pakistan, ostensibly helping with hurricane relief. But Pakistani officials have again warned the U.S. not to allow its troops in Afghanistan to carry out raids across the border in “hot pursuit” of Afghan resistance forces. They had issued the same warning Jan. 9 after U.S. troops crossed the border and killed eight Pakistanis.