Zawahri met deputy at same home hit by US missile

The Al-Qaeda's second-in-command had met his deputy last year at the same home, which was hit by a US missile attack.

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command met his deputy last year at the same home, which was hit by a US missile attack, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Saturday.

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Al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri — the apparent target of the January 13 US attack — met Abu Farraj al-Libbi in Damadola last year, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

Al-Libbi, a Libyan, had allegedly confessed to Pakistani interrogators after his capture in May 2005 that he met al-Zawahri at Damadola, near the Afghan border, in early 2005. Al-Libbi was nabbed after a shootout in another remote hamlet in northwestern Pakistan.

Another high-ranking intelligence official confirmed al-Libbi's account of the meeting, which took place a few months before his arrest.