At least 80 militants have been killed in an air strike by Pakistani forces on a madrassa (religious school) used as a militant training camp, the army says.

The army said the madrassa in the tribal area of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan was destroyed by helicopter gunships early on Monday.

One eyewitness told the BBC that 70-80 students were inside. A leading local politician says the dead were innocent.

Pakistan has deployed nearly 80,000 troops along the border...

An NBC News stringer on the ground in Chingai, Pakistan, confirms that the madrassa attacked by Pakistani forces (perhaps with American help through a Predator drone) was indeed a recruiting and training camp for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. "I saw Faqir Mohammed, an al-Qaida commander in the Bajur tribal district. Usually the Taliban doesn't allow reporters to film things, but Mohammed let me interview him and film the scene near the school... Mohammed, the al-Qaida leader in the area, was one of the first people in the area to publicly support the Taliban and Osama bin Laden... The school was known as a strong supporter of the Taliban. Mohammed’s deputy Maulana Liaquat Ali Hussain — a leader of the madrassa — was killed in the attack."...

I just spoke with a military intelligence source who confirmed that the Bajur airstrike (see Andy Cochran's post on it) was conducted by a U.S. Predator, adding that helicopters were also involved. The strike occurred around dawn, as people in the camp were preparing for their morning prayers. My source is skeptical of speculation that Zawahiri may have been killed in the strike, saying that Zawahiri sightings are a dime a dozen. He says it's possible that Matiur Rehman was killed, but is also skeptical of that...