Pakistan: US bombs kill civilians near Afghan border

theage: Grieving villagers ask who was to blame

Weeping villagers dug through the rubble of homes destroyed in the pre-dawn air strike that may have killed Ayman al-Zawahiri. At least 17 people in the remote Pakistani tribal village of Damadola died in the second such unexplained attack near the volatile Afghan border within a week.

Residents of the hillside hamlet, about seven kilometres inside north-western Pakistan, said children and women were among the dead.

They recounted hearing aircraft overhead before bombs or missiles crashed through the Pashtun village - blasts that were felt by people miles away.

Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, a local lawmaker, claimed the assault was a US air strike, but the US military in Afghanistan denied knowledge of it.

A reporter who went to Damadola, about 200 kilometres south-east of Islamabad, counted at least 15 fresh graves of victims, buried quickly according to Islamic custom.

Villagers said more than 30 people had died and others were wounded.

Mohammed Karim, a doctor from a hospital in the main town of Bajur - the tribal region in which Damadola lies - said 17 or 18 people were killed and two others were treated for their wounds at the hospital.

Three houses, hundreds of metres apart, had been destroyed, the ruins lying in craters about three metres deep. Five women were weeping nearby, cursing the attackers. Dozens of others gathered to express condolences. There were no officials or security forces at the scene.

"My entire family was killed, and I don't know who should I blame for it," said Sami Ullah, 17, a student, as he shifted debris from his ruined home with a hoe. "I only seek justice from God."

He said 24 of his family members were killed - among them his parents, four brothers, three sisters-in-law, three sisters and five nephews. He said his father, Bakht Pur, had been a labourer. Read more