A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda's number two, U.S. sources said, but Ayman al-Zawahri was away at the time, according to a senior Pakistani official on Saturday.
CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. sources said.
A high-ranking Pakistani official said Zawahri, the deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was not in the village. The United States has offered a reward of $25 million for Zawahri or bin Laden.
"Al-Zawahri was not there at the time of the attack," the Pakistani official told Reuters.
Pakistani intelligence sources said Zawahri was believed to have made visits to the Bajaur area, though on Friday he was not in Damadola, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
A military spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Florida said there had been no official report of an attack in Pakistan.
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