In Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, about 8,000 people attended a rally outside the main Binori mosque, listening to fiery speeches condemning the United States and the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
''There has been a protest in every big city, and the government understands why so many people are angry,'' said Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Pakistan's information minister. ''When it comes to image-building in Muslim countries, particularly Pakistan, the U.S. is moving one foot forward and two backward.''
U.S. senators defended the strike on television talk shows Sunday.
''We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again,'' Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS's ''Face the Nation.'' ''We have to do what we think is necessary to take out al-Qaida, particularly the top operatives. This guy has been more visible than Osama bin Laden lately.''
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., also defended the action. ''It's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?'' he said on CNN's ''Late Edition.'' ''It's like the wild, wild West out there. The Pakistani border is a real problem.''
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the strike was ''clearly justified by the intelligence.''
Friday's rocket attack in the village of Damadola, just over the border from Afghanistan, was carried out by the CIA with an unmanned Predator drone firing missiles at houses where Zawahiri was thought to have been, according to U.S. military and intelligence sources. The CIA has declined to comment.
Pakistani officials initially said 17 people were killed in the strike, but a senior intelligence official in Islamabad said Sunday that there was evidence of 13 deaths, including three children and five women. Local officials said the victims were all local residents and no militants were killed.
U.S. intelligence sources are uncertain about the identities of those killed, including whether Zawahiri was among them. A second Pakistani intelligence official discounted reports that the FBI was considering conducting DNA tests of the remains of the dead to determine whether any were known terrorists.
''What do you think, that the families of the victims would let us or the Americans dig the graves of their loved ones for FBI tests?'' the official asked. ''An absolutely crazy idea.''
U.S. officials said the Pakistani intelligence service had taken an active role in helping to coordinate the strike. But Saturday, Pakistan formally protested the incident.
About 19,000 U.S. soldiers operate just over the border in Afghanistan, but the Pakistani government has not given them permission to cross into Pakistani territory in pursuit of al-Qaida fugitives - many of whom are believed to be hiding out in the rugged and largely lawless tribal errors on the Pakistani side of the frontier. Zawahiri and bin Laden are thought to be among them.
Thousands of U.S. troops are involved in major relief and rehabilitation work in areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir that were devastated by an earthquake last fall. Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush is due in Pakistan today to survey the work. Speakers at the rallies Sunday said he would not be welcome.
