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DUBAI, July 15 (AFP) - Hundreds of alleged members of Al-Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, and other terror groups are living in Iran, some under tight security, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Thursday. "More than 384 members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations are present in Iran, including 18 senior leaders of Osama bin Laden`s network," the London-based daily said, citing a senior source in the Iranian presidency. The Saudi-owned newspaper said the terrorist leaders were living under tight protection, some of them in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous on the Caspian coast,...

Al-Qaida's Links to Iranian Security Services Yael Shahar ICT Researcher Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, terrorism has served the regime of the ayatollahs as a tool of both domestic and foreign policy. This policy was directed against Iranian citizens inside Iran, as well as against advocates of opposition views in exile. Iran's sponsorship of terrorism has bridged ideological gaps and political divides; Teheran has provided arms and training to such groups as the Gama’a al-Islamiyah, the Egyptian al-Jihad, and the Algerian G.I.A. Al-Qaida too, has benefited from Iranian support and expertise for more than a decade. More recently,...

TEHRAN 17 Feb. (IPS) The Iranian Foreign Ministry Sunday denied press reports of the arrest, in Iran, of Dr. Iman Al Zawaheri, the Al-Qa’eda’s second man, without insisting further. The Persian daily "Hayat No" (New Life), owned by Hojjatoleslam Hadi Khameneh’i, the younger brother of the leader of the Islamic Republic who is in the opposed camp of his brother, reported Sunday that Mr. Al-Zawaheri, considered as Mr. Osama Ben Laden’s mentor and the brain behind the 11 September operations, has been detained in Iran. According to the daily, considered as an informed and serious paper, the Egyptian doctor Al-Zawaheri ...

Two key suspects in the series of suicide bombings in Istanbul that killed 61 people met with and took instructions from Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, newspapers reported Tuesday, a day after the government made its strongest statement linking the bombers to al-Qaida. Hurriyet newspaper, quoting from the testimony of one of the suspects, said main suspects Habib Aktas and Azad Ekinci met with bin Laden's top surviving lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, several times. The two Turks are suspected of hatching the plans for the Nov. 15 suicide bombings against two synagogues and on the British Consulate and a British bank...

TEHRAN, May 26 (AFP) - Iran said Monday it was not holding any "important leaders" of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in its jails, a day after a top diplomat revealed some members of the terror network were in Iranian custody. "Al-Qaeda members have been arrested in Iran, but the persons imprisoned are not important leaders of al-Qaeda," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told state radio. Asefi's comment came after Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, said that Iran was holding an undisclosed number of the group's members. "We have had a number of al-Qaeda people in custody, and...

RIYADH (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda militant orchestrated the bombing of a residential compound in Saudi Arabia earlier this month by telephone from Iran, a Saudi newspaper says. Okaz newspaper, quoting informed sources on Sunday, said the militant network's security chief Saif al-Adel gave orders for the attack in the capital Riyadh by satellite phone. Neither Saudi nor Iranian officials were immediately available to comment on the Okaz report. "The sources said Saif al-Adel led the bombing operation of the Muhaya residential compound, using a Thuraya phone to give instructions to the terrorists in the kingdom who carried out...

Iran is using the senior members of the al-Qaida network it has detained as a bargaining chip in its war of nerves with the US, and will only allow their extradition in return for substantial concessions, sources in the political establishment said yesterday. "Iran holds the golden key on the al-Qaida issue, and the US knows it," a source familiar with the senior leadership told the Guardian. "They need us." Iranian officials privately acknowledge that Tehran is holding important members of the network - thought to include Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian who is believed to be the head of al-Qaida's...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Senior al-Qaeda leaders are "busy" in Iran, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said amid reports that terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia were directed by a small cell of terrorist leaders in Iran. "Just from a factual standpoint there is no question but that there have been and are today senior al-Qaeda leaders in Iran and they are busy," he said. Rumsfeld spoke after thanking the crown prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, for his country's support in Iraq. Earlier, the Arab television news network Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape purportedly by top al-Qaeda leader Ayman...

Iranian officials said Thursday that Iran has several unnamed Al Qaeda operatives in custody, The Cable News Network has learned. The acknowledgement came as Washington has intensified its accusations that Al Qaeda terrorists are inside Iran-something Terhan had previously denied.United States officials say the key area in question is whether the Al Qaeda operatives in custody are allowed to communicate and recieve visitors. One Bush Administration official told CNN that Landar Brahimi , the United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan met Thursday in Geneva with Iranian officials. It was during that meeting that Iran said it had several Al Qaeda...

Today’s Asharq Al-Awsat contained a story detailing how Aiman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, and Imad Mughniyah, a top Hezballah leader, secretly left Iran only a few days ago, due to increased pressure from the Iranian government. Below is a summary of the article. ---- “Aiman al-Zawahiri and Imad Mughniyah left Iran recently. Fears that Saif al-Adel and Sa’ed Bin Laden might escape too.” “An incident in the Maher Abad airport reveals a plan to smuggle al-Qaeda leaders with the help of elements non-submissive to the government.” According to Asharq Al-aswat, Imad Mughniyah, a Hezballah leader and one of the world’s most...

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 ...

Iran Helped Bin Laden’s Lieutenant al-Zawahiri Escape From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 123 Aug. 22 September 8, 2003, 8:33 PM (GMT+02:00) Dr. Ayman Zawahiri on the loose for new terrorist operations Iran consistently denies ever having sheltered or hidden Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant and operations ace, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, in the group of al Qaeda leaders present in the country. This assertion is wide of the truth. The Islamic Republic did in fact hide the bespectacled Egyptian medical doctor for close on a year. He was granted sanctuary, a base of operation and finally provided with a safe getaway route – as...