Pakistani tribesmen protest

About 500 Pakistani tribesmen held a rally in tribal South Waziristan to protest the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces, witnesses said. The rally Tuesday was organized by a Taliban faction led by Mulla Nazir in Waziristan's Wana town, and those taking part vowed to avenge the killing of the al-Qaida leader, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Bin Laden was killed during a May 2 predawn raid by a U.S. Navy SEALs team on his compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad, northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The incident has raised a number of questions including how the world's most wanted terrorist and his family managed to live in the huge compound without the knowledge of the Pakistani military or its intelligence agency. The tribesmen at the rally shouted anti-American slogans and criticized the Pakistani government, the Xinhua report said. The report quoted witnesses as saying the rally outside a seminary included religious scholars, Taliban militants and some Taliban commanders. Some of the protesters carried anti-U.S. banners and placards calling bin Laden a "martyr of Islam." The report said Wana is controlled by the Mulla Nazir group, which has arranged a peace deal with security forces.