Al-Qaeda Number Two Ayman al-Zawahri was a past visitor to a madrasa destroyed by a Pakistan Army helicopter attack but he was not there when the missiles struck on Monday, senior Pakistani security officials say. Several other al-Qaeda luminaries had passed through the religious school run by pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Liaqatullah, who was killed in the airstrike along with around 80 of his followers, the officials told reporters a day after the attack.Among the other known militants to have frequented the madrasa at Chenagai village, near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan, was Abu Obaida al-Misri. An Egyptian, like Zawahri, al-Misri was identified as the mastermind of a plot to blow up US-bound airliners flying from London's Heathrow airport that was foiled earlier this year. The officials say he was a mentor to Rashid Rauf, a British Muslim arrested in Pakistan in August, who was said to be a key figure in the conspiracy.
No major militant figure was believed to have been present when the army attacked, and orders for the assault were given in anticipation that the militants were about to be sent to fight - possibly to launch suicide attacks on NATO and Afghan forces.