U.S. targeted al Qaeda No. 2 in airstrike

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, but it was unclear if he had been killed, U.S. media quoted U.S. and Pakistani sources as saying on Friday.

CNN quoted what it said were knowledgeable sources as saying the CIA ordered the airstrike on buildings after receiving intelligence that Zawahri was in a village near the border with Afghanistan.

ABC News quoted Pakistani military sources as saying that five of those killed were "high-level" al Qaeda figures.

A spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Florida, the military command responsible for that region of the world, said there had been no official report of such an attack.

"At this time, there is nothing in the operational reporting to suggest that this attack or incident occurred from a U.S. Central Command perspective," said Maj. Chris Karns.

CIA officials declined to comment and the White House officials had no confirmation.

Pakistan's information minister said the country was investigating the reports but he could not confirm anything.

Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Zawahri have eluded capture since U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001 after the September 11 attacks.

U.S. President George W. Bush has been using what was believed to have been an intercepted communication between Zawahri and the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to underscore his belief that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism.

On Wednesday, he talked about the search for Zawahri in remarks in Louisville, Kentucky.

"The short-term objective is to use our intelligence and our allies to hunt these people down. ... We('ve) got brave, brave souls, who, every single day, are trying to find the al Qaeda leadership and the network," Bush said.

In a video that aired last Friday, Zawahri congratulated Muslims "on Islam's victory in Iraq" and said the United States was being defeated there. CIA officials declined to comment on the report.

A Pakistani security official and residents of a border region said earlier that U.S. aircraft from Afghanistan killed 18 people, including women and children, when they fired missiles at pro-Taliban Islamists early on Friday.

Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said up to 14 people had been killed in several blasts in the Bajaur tribal region but said he did not know the cause.

A Pakistani intelligence official said four U.S. aircraft had intruded into Pakistani airspace and fired four missiles.

(Additional reporting by Joanne Morrison in Washington and Simon Cameron-Moore in Islamabad)