Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf said today there were indications that al-Qaida members were killed in a US airstrike near the Afghan border on January 13.

PAKISTANI security forces yesterday stopped hundreds of hardline Islamists from heading to north-western Pakistan to protest against a fatal US missile attack, the first time authorities have tried to quell mounting anti-American sentiments.

Pakistani authorities stopped 2,000-strong convoy of protestors heading for the scene of a US missile attack, an official said today.

A provincial assembly in north-western Pakistan demanded the expulsion of the US ambassador to Islamabad today, more than a week after a US airstrike killed 13 people in a border village.

THOUSANDS of angry Pakistanis protested yesterday against a US airstrike that killed civilians, chanting "Long live Osama bin Laden!" as anti-American rallies in the country entered their second week.

Al-Qaida’s second-in-command met his deputy last year at the same home hit by a US missile attack believed to have killed at least four of the terror network’s operatives, Pakistani intelligence officials said today.

Outrage at the US has continued in Pakistan, with thousands taking to the streets chanting “Death to America” and calling for holy war over an airstrike that devastated a remote border village.

An al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network’s number-two leader were among three top operatives believed killed in a US missile strike in Pakistan last week, Pakistani security officials said today.

AT least four foreign terrorists died in the purported US airstrike aimed at al-Qaida’s number two leader in a Pakistani border village, the provincial government said yesterday.

Pakistani provincial authorities said today four or five foreign terrorists were killed in last week's US missile strike that has strained relations with the Muslim nation that is a key ally in President George Bush's war on terror.

ANGER mounted across Pakistan yesterday after an attempt to kill al-Qaida’s number two missed the target, but caused the death of at least 17 other people.

Anti-US Islamic groups began nationwide protests today against a deadly CIA airstrike that killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target – top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri.

Two senior Pakistani officials said today that al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri was not at the site of the US air strike near the Afghan border.

An air strike in a remote Pakistani tribal area that killed at least 17 people was targeting al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, who may have been using a suspected terrorist hideout, a senior official said today.