ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's president told a senior American official Saturday the United States must not repeat airstrikes like the one that apparently was aimed at al-Qaida but killed civilians in a remote village, as officials sought to soothe public outrage over the attack.
Also yesterday, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press a captured al-Qaida leader had informed interrogators that he had met Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top deputy, last year at one of the homes that was hit.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assured visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns that Pakistan would not waver in its support for Washington's war on terrorism but said such airstrikes must not be repeated, a Foreign Ministry official said. The attack prompted nationwide protests calling for Musharraf's ouster.
Musharraf's comments yesterday were his first publicized reaction to the Jan. 13 attack on the village of Damadola, near the border with Afghanistan.
The airstrike -- which hit three homes in the mountainous Bajur tribal region -- is believed to have killed at least four of al-Zawahri's close associates and at least 13 civilians, including women and children.
The Foreign Ministry official said yesterday that Musharraf told Burns: "What happened in Bajur must not be repeated." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to comment on the record.
Musharraf apparently was referring to Pakistan's long-standing policy of prohibiting the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan from pursuing militants across the border into Pakistan or attacking them in the country without his permission. Pakistani officials have said they were not informed ahead of time of the Jan. 13 attack.
Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri delivered a similar message to Burns when they met later yesterday in the capital of Islamabad.
"While reaffirming Pakistan's commitment to counter-terrorism, the foreign minister underlined the need for the two countries to work in a manner that precludes recent incidents like Bajur," the Foreign Ministry said in the statement yesterday.
A separate Foreign Ministry statement issued earlier yesterday after Musharraf's meeting did not mention his comments on the airstrike. Instead, the statement mentioned Musharraf's expressed gratitude for U.S. assistance in relief efforts for an Oct. 8 earthquake that devastated the country's north. Burns met Musharraf at his office in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad.
Although a key ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, Pakistan has lodged a protest with the United States over the airstrike, which angered many in this Islamic nation of 150 million. Pakistan's independent GEO television reported yesterday that Musharraf warned Burns that repeated attacks could affect cooperation in the war on terrorism.
Pakistani officials suspect at least four foreign militants may have died in the Jan. 13 airstrike, including Egypt's Midhat Mursi -- an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of al-Zawahri. Mursi has a $5 million bounty on his head and is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.
Pakistan and the United States, however, have not confirmed the identities or nationalities of any of the dead al-Qaida suspects.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Libyan-born Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was captured in Pakistan in May, told interrogators that he met al-Zawahri last year at one of the homes that was hit.
The two are believed to have met at the house of Bakhtpur Khan, who is listed among the 13 civilians believed to have died in the airstrike.
