Home>>World
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 29, 2001

Top al-Qaeda Operatives Captured in Afghanistan: Report

Several top members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network have been captured in Afghanistan by Northern Alliance forces, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday quoting US intelligence officials.


PRINT IT DISCUSS IT CHINESE SEND TO FRIENDS


Several top members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network have been captured in Afghanistan by Northern Alliance forces, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday quoting US intelligence officials.

Included among the suspects is Ahmed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Muslim cleric convicted in 1995 in a foiled plot to bomb several landmarks in New York and whose followers were convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the daily said.

The 36-year-old Rahman and as many as a dozen al-Qaeda operatives could be flown to the Pacific region to be held at a US military facility, perhaps in Guam or Wake Island, the report added.

Rahman, described as an important figure in charge of recruiting for terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, was carrying out the work of his father, who is serving a life sentence at a prison in Minnesota.

"This is a significant catch," an unidentified senior US administration official told the daily of Rahman. "He is a known terrorist, a member of the top al-Qaeda hierarchy."

The daily said the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency had told the Central Intelligence Agency of Rahman's capture by the Northern Alliance, which was holding him at an undisclosed location, adding that the CIA could not confirm the report.

In Islamabad, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan said he had "no information at all" on the reported capture of Rahman and other al-Qaeda members.

The possible detention of the suspects at a US military facility outside the continental US has fueled speculation they could be tried in military courts, under a controversial executive order signed recently by President George W. Bush that allows military trials for terror suspects who are not US citizens.

Saudi extremist and millionaire bin Laden is the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States that killed some 3,700 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.




    Advanced

Bush Says War to Continue Until Al-Qaeda Destroyed

Al-Qaeda Seeks Nuclear Material: Experts