ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- An air attack on an Islamic school in Pakistan that killed some 80 suspected militants was initiated by a U.S. drone aircraft, ABC News said.
A senior Pakistani intelligence source told the network Pakistani helicopters joined Monday's operation after an unmanned drone fired two missiles at the Islamic school near the Afghanistan border.
The helicopters reportedly gunned down 15 men who fled the school, ABC said Wednesday.
The source said the targets were al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri and Abu Obeida al Misri, the alleged mastermind of the summer plot to blow up airliners from Britain to the United States. Neither of the men was killed in the strike.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been under increasing pressure from the United States to secure the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border to stop the movement of Taliban and al-Qaida militants. Pakistan has some 80,000 troops stationed along the border.
