Pakistan’s military launched an attack today on a madrassa near the Afghanistan border, wiping out the Islamic school and killing 80 people.

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani helicopter gunships have destroyed an Islamic school allegedly used as an Al-Qaeda-linked training camp near the Afghan border, killing up to 80 suspected militants.

Local leaders however insisted that most of the dead were teenage students, many of whom were “reduced to bits and pieces”, and protests erupted against the Pakistani government and its ally the United States.

The airstrike that targeted a madrassa in the troubled Bajaur tribal agency was one of the biggest ever in Pakistan’s frontier region, where many Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have sought sanctuary since 2001.

“Information we have received from certain local sources and intelligence sources suggests that there may be about 80 dead,” chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.

“We had information about the presence of 70 to 80 miscreants, including some foreigners, who were engaging in militant training in this madrassa and we carried out an operation using gunship helicopters and precision weapons,” he said Monday.

“Most of the compound was destroyed.”

UPDATE at 10/30/06 12:28:31 pm:

The Blotter has more details, and a claim that the attack was carried out by the US, targeting Ayman al-Zawahri:

Despite earlier reports that the missiles had been launched by Pakistani military helicopters, Pakistani intelligence sources now tell ABC News that the missiles were fired from a U.S. Predator drone plane.

Between two and five senior al Qaeda militants were killed in the attack, including the mastermind of the airliners plot in the U.K., according to Pakistani intelligence sources.

No word yet on whether or not Zawahiri was killed in the raid, but one Pakistani intelligence source did express doubt that Zawahiri would have been staying in a madrassa, which is an obvious target for strikes against militants. That source, however, did express confidence that Pakistani intelligence is closing in on Zawahiri’s location.

One of the clerics who is believed to have been killed today, Maulana Liaquat, was one of the two main local leaders believed to be protecting Zawahiri.

UPDATE at 10/30/06 12:47:04 pm:

The Islamic groups are already in the streets in Karachi:

Pakistani students from the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba group chant slogans during a protest in Karachi October 30, 2006 against an army attack on a religious school in the Chenagai area of the Bajaur tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani army helicopters killed around 80 suspected militants on Monday in a dawn attack on the religious school run by a pro-Taliban commander wanted for harbouring al Qaeda fighters, a military spokesman said. REUTERS/Athar Hussain (PAKISTAN)

UPDATE at 10/30/06 5:04:33 pm:

The US military says, “We had nothing to do with it.”

“It was completely done by the Pakistani military,” U.S. military spokesman Maj. Matt Hackathorn said in Afghanistan.