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THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 2 empty graves found at missile-strike site

Thursday, January 19, 2006

2 empty graves found at missile-strike site

Officials say local militants may have shifted bodies to stop DNA testing

Investigators said on Wednesday that they had found two empty graves at the site of a controversial US air strike in the Bajaur Agency, a day after officials said that up to five foreign militants had died in the attack.

However, there was no information about the identities of the insurgents who died in the raid, despite initial US intelligence reports that Al Qaeda�s Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahri may have been among them.

Officials said that local militants may have shifted the bodies before their scheduled burials to stop authorities from DNA testing the remains and finding out who was killed in Friday�s missile attack.

On Tuesday, the Bajaur regional administration chief said that the missile strike was aimed at foreign militants invited to a dinner and that four or five were killed � the first such public confirmation by Pakistan.

The tribal administration said that two local militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammad and Maulana Liaqat, had removed the bodies of the foreign extremists killed in the attack to �suppress the actual reason of the attack�, but gave no evidence.

On Wednesday, Shah Zaman Khan, director general of media relations for the tribal areas, said that the terrorists� bodies are now probably in �inaccessible mountainous areas� along the rugged, ill-defined border. �Efforts are underway to investigate further,� Khan said. �The administration is also trying to arrest those clerics who were believed to be there.�

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