Meanwhile in Afghanistan, U.S. military officials yesterday sought to discredit reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a top aide of bin Laden, had been killed. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency cited unnamed sources as saying that al-Zawahiri was killed in a special operation carriedout by unidentified individuals in Afghanistan. It did not give any date. "As far as I know, this is a rumor and nothing more," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Roger King told Agence France-Presse. In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "We have nothing to substantiate this information."
