http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=6&art_id=30754&sid=10642902&con_type=1&d_str=20061101
Terror chiefs `visited school' Sadaqat Jan Wednesday, November 01, 2006 A religious school destroyed in Pakistani airstrikes was frequented by top al-Qaeda militants including Ayman al- Zawahiri and the alleged mastermind of the foiled London airliners attack, a senior security official said Tuesday. Neither Zawahiri - Osama bin Laden's Egyptian-born deputy - nor Abu Obaida Al-Misri were in the Islamic school, or madrassa, at the time of the raid on Monday, the official said in a briefing to journalists. "The madrassa that was targeted was frequently visited by al-Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al-Misri," the security official said. He said Al-Misri was al-Qaeda's operational commander in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province and was also the mastermind behind August's alleged conspiracy to blow up jets flying from London to the United States. Al-Misri was responsible for guiding Rashid Rauf, a British national arrested by Pakistan in August in connection with the alleged plot, the official said. "Al-Misri has been a frequent visitor to the madrassa but he was not present at the time of the raid. Zawahiri was not there also," the official said. He did not disclose when Zawahiri or Al-Misri were last in the seminary in the Bajaur tribal area near the Afghan border, which army gunships destroyed early Monday killing around 80 people. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said Zawahiri escaped a CIA raid in Bajaur in January that killed up to 18 people including five wanted figures from the al-Qaeda network. Reports said at the time that Al- Misri may have died in the January attack but the security official said they were untrue. Security officials have also said that the leader of the madrassa, a Taleban commander called Maulvi Liaqat, was a close asssociate of Zawahiri who helped shelter him in the past. The security official said Tuesday that the militants killed in the raid were to be sent on terror missions in the near future. "In fact, they were in a hurry to push them out after training for attacks which could have been in Afghanistan or inside Pakistan, but we don't know," he said. al-Qaeda may have been using the facility to recruit "footsoldiers" for the network because it is running short of manpower, he added. Infra-red images obtained from the air and displayed at the briefing showed the militants lined up in rows and columns for what the official said was combat training. "The dead were all militants aged between 20 and 30 years, but there was no high-value target among them," the official said. He said care was exercised to avoid any damage to the mosque located in the compound but a wall was blasted off. "Some 15 militants who were inside the mosque at the time managed to flee," he said. Pakistan used intelligence provided by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in a raid that killed 80 suspected militants, but American forces did not fire any missiles, Pakistan's army spokesman said Tuesday. He later denied saying American information was provided. ASSOCIATED PRESS -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
