Posted on 10/03/2002 9:06:17 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Ayman al-Zawahiri, considered Osama bin Laden's top aide, has been killed in Afghanistan, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported yesterday, citing informed sources.
In a report from Islamabad, the agency cited sources as saying that al-Zawahiri was not killed in fighting but in a special operation carried out by unidentified individuals.
It did not give any date.
On September 11, a London-based Islamist said al-Zawahiri had recently married two widows of a comrade killed in the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
An Afghan military chief said in December 2001 that Zawahiri had been injured and possibly killed in an air attack near the Tora Bora cave complex south of the eastern city of Jalalabad.
However, German intelligence sources were reported as saying in early September that bin Laden and senior leaders of his al-Qaeda network, including Zawahiri, were probably still alive and in hiding, possibly in a remote mountainous region on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician and a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was said to be the number two man in bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and its chief financier.
He is said to be bin Laden's mentor and one of the chief organisers of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
The United States has offered a US$5 million ($9.22m) reward for information leading to his capture.
AFP
Can you imagine what that'd by for some poor s.o.b in Afghanistan? I wonder how well publicized these offers are in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
MURDER OF U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; CONSPIRACY TO MURDER U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; ATTACK ON A FEDERAL FACILITY RESULTING IN DEATH
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AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI
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Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been indicted for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.
The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE. |
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[ FBI Home Page ] [ FBI Field Offices ]
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TEHRAN: The right-hand man of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden was arrested several days ago and is imprisoned in the Iranian capital of Tehran, a leading Iranian daily said on Sunday. Iran's Foreign Ministry denied the report.The Farsi-language Hayat-e-Nou reported Ayman al-Zawahri was in Tehran's Evin prison, where well-known political prisoners often are held. It did not disclose its sources or provide any other information.
Hayat-e-Nou is run by Hadi Khamenei, an influential legislator and brother of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is among Iran's most reliable newspapers.
"The news that has been published in Hayat-e-Nou newspaper is not true, we deny it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Experts on Bin Laden's movements had assumed al-Zawahri, a doctor and Bin Laden's spiritual adviser and potential successor as head of the terrorist network al-Qaeda, would be with Bin Laden in hiding.
Hayat-e-Nou did not mention the whereabouts of Bin Laden, subject of an intense manhunt since being blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Iran's reported detention of a key al-Qaeda figure comes amid signs Tehran is trying to defuse tensions with the United States, which has accused it of trying to destabilize neighboring Afghanistan by harboring al-Qaeda militants.
CIA Director George J Tenet said recently that Tehran had failed "to move decisively against al-Qaeda members who have relocated to Iran from Afghanistan."
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported last week that authorities had arrested about 150 people, including a number of Arabs, for questioning over links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, the Afghan militia that had harbored Bin Laden. ..."
Meantime, here's a story someone posted last month about the status of some of al-Qaeda's top men. And Thugburg is another list that's updated every month or so, but is also far from comprehensive.
I'll bet the CIA and NSA have a pretty good list (wish they'd post it on the net)! :-)
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