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Recent Appearances... Rantburg
Mustafa Setmarian Nasar Mustafa Satmaria Nasar al-Qaeda Afghanistan-Pak-India 20051107 Link
  Mustafa Setmariam Nasar al-Qaeda Terror Networks Syrian In Jug 20050712  
    Al-Qaeda strategist
  Mustafa Setmariam Nasar Takfir wal Hijra Europe 20040523 Link
  Mustafa Setmariam Nasar al-Qaeda in Europe Europe 20050716  
  Mustafa Setmarian Nasar al-Qaeda Afghanistan-Pak-India 20051103 Link
  Mustafa Setmarian Nasar al-Qaeda in Europe Britain 20050804  

International-UN-NGOs
AI wants us to know: 39 Secretly Imprisoned by U.S.
2007-06-07
A coalition of human rights groups has drawn up a list of 39 terror suspects it believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities and published their names in a report released Thursday. Information about the so-called "ghost detainees" was gleaned from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups.

Information on the purported missing detainees was, in some cases, incomplete, the report acknowledged. Some detainees had been added to the list because Marwan Jabour, an Islamic militant who claims to have spent two years in CIA custody, remembered being shown photos of them during interrogations, it said. Others were identified only by their first or last names, like "al-Rubaia," who was added to the list after a fellow inmate reported seeing the name scribbled onto the wall of his cell. But information for at least 21 of the detainees had been confirmed by two or more independent sources, said Anne Fitzgerald, a senior adviser for Amnesty International.

President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret detention centers in September 2006, but said that the prisons were then empty. Bush said 14 terrorism suspects that the CIA had been holding, including a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay for trials.

Detainees on the list include Hassan Ghul and Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who were both named in the 9-11 Commission report as al-Qaida operatives. Another is Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a jihadist ideologue named as one of the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists." U.S. officials have confirmed that Nasar was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November 2005, and the activists' report said that he was taken into U.S. custody after his arrest, citing unnamed Pakistani officials. His current location is unknown. Also missing is Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheik" behind the first plot against the World Trade Center in New York, the report said.

Most of the 35 other detainees mentioned in the report have been previously identified, with the exception of four Libyans, alleged members of the al-Qaida-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. The report says they were handed to U.S. authorities and have not been heard from since.

The four other groups involved in drafting the report were the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's School of Law, and Reprieve and Cageprisoners - both London-based rights groups.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Al Qaeda leader 'in secret CIA jail'
2006-10-16
A SUSPECTED al Qaeda leader, accused of being involved in September 11 and planning the 2004 Madrid train bombings, has been imprisoned in a secret US jail for the past year, Spain's El Pais newspaper reported today. Mustafa Setmarian, 48, a Syrian with Spanish citizenship, was captured in Pakistan in October 2005 and is held in a prison operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, Pakistani and European security service officials told El Pais.
He's currently being held at Ice Station Zebra.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Spain declined to comment on the report.
"I can say no more!"
Setmarian's 2005 capture was reported in May of this year after the United States put a $5 million bounty on the head of the alleged founder of al Qaeda's Spanish network. A photograph of the red-haired Setmarian has been removed from the US Federal Bureau of Intelligence's most-wanted web page.
Mission accomplished!
Pakistan has not answered requests from Madrid about the whereabouts of Setmarian, wanted in Spain for allegedly training September 11 hijackers in Afghanistan and ordering Madrid commuter train attacks that killed 191 people, according to El Pais.

Spain's high court is unable to request his extradition as he has not been officially imprisoned, the newspaper reported.
Imprisoned? Who? Nevah hoid of him!
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon in June complained US officials were concealing information on his whereabouts.
Sorry Balt, we like you but this boy is ours.
Amnesty International has reported Setmarian's disappearance. The human rights organisation says dozens of Islamic radicals captured in Pakistan are held in clandestine jails operated by the United States and other countries.
Heh. The Ross Ice Shelf is nice this time of year.
Setmarian is married to Elena Moreno, a Spanish woman who says he is held in a secret CIA jail.
Link


Home Front: WoT
CIA holds Setmarian in secret jail
2006-10-15
A suspected al Qaeda leader, accused of being involved in September 11 and planning the 2004 Madrid train bombings, has been imprisoned in a secret U.S. jail for the past year, Spain's El Pais newspaper reported on Sunday.
Oh, gee, golly, gosh, shucks. Ain't it a shame?
Mustafa Setmarian, 48, a Syrian with Spanish citizenship, was captured in Pakistan in October 2005 and is held in a prison operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Pakistani and European security service officials told El Pais.
In gross violation of the killer's human rights, we might add...
Setmarian's 2005 capture was reported in May of this year after the United States put a $5 million bounty on the head of the alleged founder of al Qaeda's Spanish network. A photograph of the red-haired Setmarian has been removed from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Intelligence's [sic] most-wanted Web page.
That'd imply he's either in jug or in the ground...
Pakistan has not answered requests from Madrid about the whereabouts of Setmarian, wanted in Spain for allegedly training September 11 hijackers in Afghanistan and ordering Madrid commuter train attacks that killed 191 people, according to El Pais. Spain's high court is unable to request his extradition as he has not been officially imprisoned, the newspaper reported. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon in June complained U.S. officials were concealing information on his whereabouts.
The Spaniards can have him when we're done with him.
Amnesty International has reported Setmarian's disappearance. The human rights organization says dozens of Islamic radicals captured in Pakistan are held in clandestine jails operated by the United States and other countries. Setmarian is married to Elena Moreno, a Spanish woman who says he is held in a secret CIA jail.
Link


Terror Networks
Al-Suri treatise on jihad in Central Asia
2006-05-10
“Muslims in Central Asia and the Future Battle of Islam,” a twenty-seven page white paper authored by Abu Musab al-Suri AKA Musatafa Setmarian Nasar in November 1999, advocates jihad in the states of East Turkistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and the capture of resources. This document is circulated amongst other archived al-Suri materials, such as his 1,600 page book International Islamic Resistance Call , and an assortment of terrorist training lectures, currently placed on a hacked directory of the website, “Meat’s Joke of the Day,” www.mjotd.com . Abu Musab al-Suri writes historically of the Soviet invasion of Central Asia, the strategic importance of the area in terms of natural resources, industrial institutions, Islamic capitals, commercial market, and the “military vigor” of the Muslims in this region.

As this document is written in 1999, al-Suri references the success of the Afghan jihad and the availability of the Taliban regime for providing assistance and experience to the mujahideen in Central Asia, spearheading a “rejoicing Islamic and Jihadi arousal”. The states of this region are purportedly subjected to a “vehement crusading invasion,” formerly occupied by the Russians, but now open to economic invasion by the West, including heavy financial investments. Al-Suri summarizes aggression against Muslims in addition to the aforementioned, highlighting “hostile policy” and armed clashes. He cites arrests and confrontations in Tajikstan and Uzbekistan to illustrate rancor by these governments towards the mujahideen and Muslims.

Concerning the importance of jihad in Central Asia and reasons for its priority, Abu Musab al-Suri explains that in the new global order, this region is the “weakest spot of the enemy,” and may be a prudent epicenter for operations. He notes the natural geography of the countries, and the “the military inheritance, including equipment, structures and ammunition of the [former] Soviet Union that has accumulated in this region is a military resource and an inheritance that the people of Islam cannot even dream of finding elsewhere”. Importantly, al-Suri advocates the possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the hands of Central Asian Muslims because they will not be able to wage a successful “classical war” against the West. The weapons are to be used for threatening and casting fear amongst the enemy. Further, the document reads: “The developed state of the industries and the existence of raw materials for these weapons make Central Asia a base, as well as the subject of the Muslims’ hope, for possessing these weapons”.

Media reports indicate that a suspect believed to be Abu Musab al-Suri was captured in Quetta, Pakistan during the beginning of November 2005. Abu Musab al-Suri, AKA Mustafa Setmarian Nassar, or Umar Abd al-Hakim, is an al-Qaeda operative who ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and instructs in poison and chemical warfare. On November 18, 2004, the U.S. State Department offered a $5 million for information leading to his arrest. Al-Suri, meaning “The Syrian,” was indicted in Spain in 2003 for allegedly training al-Qaeda sleeper cells for deployment in Spain, Italy, and France and is believed to have masterminded the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.
Link


Terror Networks
Binny likely hiding in Pakistan
2006-05-07
Parts of Pakistan are a “safe haven” for militants and the country is the likely hiding place of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a top US counter-terrorism official said during a visit to Afghanistan, in remarks that drew a sharp response from Islamabad.

Henry Crumpton, the US ambassador in charge of counter-terrorism, on Saturday lauded Pakistan for arresting “hundreds and hundreds” of Al Qaeda figures but said the country needed to do more.

“Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is no. I have conveyed that to them, other US officials have conveyed that to them,” Crumpton told reporters at the US Embassy in Kabul after talks with Afghan officials.

The chief spokesman for Pakistan’s army, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, dismissed Crumpton’s assertion that Pakistan was not doing enough.

“It is totally absurd,” he said. “No one has conveyed this thing to Pakistan, and if someone claims so, it is absurd.”

Crumpton praised Pakistan’s capture Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a top Al Qaeda strategist with a US$5 million bounty on his head, in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November.

Pakistan has also launched repeated counter-terrorism operations in its lawless tribal regions close to the Afghan border over the past two years, in which hundreds of militants and soldiers have died.

“Our expectation is that they will continue to make progress, and we know that it’s difficult,” he said. Pakistan “can’t remain a safe haven for enemy forces, and right now parts of Pakistan are indeed that.”

Crumpton said US officials continue to believe that bin Laden is somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistani border, adding that there was a “higher probability” bin Laden was on the Pakistani side than the Afghan one.

“If we knew exactly where bin Laden was, we’d go get him,” Crumpton said. “But we’re very confident he’s along the Pakistan-Afghan border somewhere,” he said.

A senior security official in Islamabad said that Crumpton, during meetings with Pakistani intelligence and government officials this week, praised Pakistan for its efforts to hunt down militants.

“I am surprised that he praised us here, and is saying something else in Kabul,” the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Link


Terror Networks
Top al-Qaida Leader Captured in Pakistan
2006-05-02
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Osama bin Laden's training camps to extremist networks in Europe has been captured in Pakistan, a U.S. law enforcement official confirms for the first time.

Pakistani officials also told The Associated Press that Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a dual Syrian-Spanish national with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been flown out of the country to an unspecified location.

Nasar was captured in a November sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta that left one person dead, the American official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official spoke to the AP late last week.

U.S. military officials aware of the detention of terror suspects at American prison facilities in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had no immediate information Tuesday on whether Nasar had been incarcerated at either jail.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the AP from the capital, Islamabad, that Nasar was flown out of Pakistan to an undisclosed destination "some time ago."

"I only know that he is not here. But, I do know that Syrian authorities had also requested to get him back," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his work.

Pakistani and American officials have long been tightlipped on the status of Nasar. He has been described by the U.S. Justice Department as a former trainer at bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals.

Another Pakistani official confirmed the Quetta arrest but had no information on Nasar's whereabouts.

"He had been interrogated by us. He had been interrogated by our American friends," said the official, who also declined to be identified because of the secretive nature of his activities.

He added that both Syrian and U.S. authorities wanted to take Nasar into custody.

A picture and short biography of the red-haired Nasar was recently removed from the U.S. government's Rewards for Justice Web site. Justice and State Department officials declined to say why Nasar was no longer profiled.

It would not be the first time Pakistan _ a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism _ has detained al-Qaida terrorists and turned them over to the Americans.

Pakistan says it has captured more than 750 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks and has handed most of them to the United States.

They include al-Qaida's former No. 3, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed _ a key planner of the attacks who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid near Islamabad _ and his purported replacement, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was detained in May 2005 in Pakistan's northwest.

Media reports have linked Nasar, who holds Spanish citizenship, to the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people, and to the July 7 attacks in London that left 56 dead, including the four bombers.

In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in a Spanish indictment for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. His exact role, if any, to either the Madrid or London bombings is unclear.

He is also wanted for a 1985 attack on a restaurant near a military base close to Madrid airport that left about 20 people dead _ regarded as the first international Islamic terrorist attack to take place in Spain.

Spain's ambassador to Pakistan, Jose-Maria Robles, said Spain had sought information from Pakistan about Nasar's reported arrest in November but had received no reply.

"Pakistan knows our interest but we have not had any official answer," he said in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Nasar, who lived in Spain and was married to a Spanish woman, also stayed in London during the mid-1990s before traveling to Afghanistan, where he was believed to have been part of bin Laden's network, a Western diplomat in Islamabad said.

His movements have been traced to Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and at least two European capitals.

Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said Nasar's capture is a major blow to the al-Qaida movement because he was the "most prolific writer" of jihadi propaganda and held close links with extremists throughout Europe and South Asia.

"The ideologues are as equally important as the operational people and he was in close contact with very prominent figures with movements in different countries, particularly the North African region," Gunaratna said.

In 2004, Nasar released a 1,600-page book titled "The International Islamic Resistance Call," which lays out strategies for attacking Islam's enemies.
Link


India-Pakistan
Nasar turned over to US officials
2006-05-02
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Afghan terror training camps to extremist networks operating throughout Europe has been detained in neighboring Pakistan and possibly handed over to American authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.

Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Syrian who also holds Spanish citizenship, was captured during a November 2005 sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in which a gunfight broke out and a person was killed, said the American official, who declined to be identified further because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press late last week, said Nasar, who is also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, may now be in U.S. custody but did not specify where. He declined to comment further.

U.S. military officials aware of the detention of terror suspects at American prison facilities in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had no immediate information Tuesday on whether Nasar had been incarcerated at either jail.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told The AP from the capital, Islamabad, that Nasar had been flown out of Pakistan to an undisclosed destination "some time ago."

"I only know that he is not here. But, I do know that Syrian authorities had also requested to get him back," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitive nature of his work.

Pakistani and American officials have long been tightlipped on the status of Nasar, who has had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head and has been described by the American Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals.
Link


India-Pakistan
Pakistan confirms holding Mustafa Setmarian Nasar
2006-03-17
Pakistan is holding a Syrian-born man with suspected terrorism links, a government official said on Thursday. The official gave no further details, including when or where the man was detained.Pakistani authorities said in November that they were trying to determine whether a man detained during a police raid in Quetta was Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, the Al Qaeda leader believed to have been the mastermind of the Madrid bombings in March 2004 and also linked to the July 7 suicide bombings in London. The train bombings in Madrid killed 192 people and the attacks in London left 56 dead.

Forty-seven-year-old Nasar, who holds Spanish citizenship, has a $5 million reward on his head and has been described by the US Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama Bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan who helped teach the use of poisons and chemicals. US authorities have said that he is likely to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Jose-Maria Robels, Spain’s ambassador to Pakistan, said on Thursday that he had no information about any such arrest. Spain sought official confirmation from Pakistan after Nasar’s arrest was reported by the media in November, but has yet to receive a reply, he said. In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by a Spanish magistrate for terrorist activities connected to Al Qaeda.
Link


India-Pakistan
Pakistan asked to confirm arrest of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
2006-03-16
The US State Department has sought confirmation from Pakistan of the arrest of an Al Qaeda leader believed to be the mastermind of the Madrid bombings in March 2004. CNN and NBC News reported in November last year that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar was captured after a gun battle in a remote area of Kohat. CNN also reported that one of Nasar’s aides was killed in the battle.
Checking to see if he's still arrested, are they?
Sources in the Interior Ministry told Daily Times on Wednesday that the State Department recently sent a letter to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Tariq Pervez through the US Embassy in Islamabad, seeking information about Nasar’s arrest. The letter, referring to various reports in the American and Spanish media about the arrest, asks the Pakistan government to confirm whether the Syrian fugitive was being held in Pakistan and inquires about his latest status.

The Syrian-born Nasar is considered the mastermind of the Madrid bombings, a series of coordinated attacks on the Spanish capital’s system on the morning of March 11, 2004, which killed 192 people and wounded 2,050. He is also accused of organising the July 7 London suicide bombings. The US State Department announced a $5 million reward for Nasar’s capture in July 2005, saying that he was believed to have fled either to Iraq or Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afganistan.

Khaleej Times: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan is holding a Syrian-born man with suspected terrorism links, a Pakistani official said on Thursday.
The official, who declined to be identified further due to the sensitive nature of the matter, gave no further details, including when or where he was detained.

Pakistani authorities confirmed in November that the were trying to determine whether a man detained during a police raid in the southern city of Quetta was Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, 47, an Al Qaeda-linked Syrian native who holds Spanish citizenship.
I'd classify this as a "Maybe".
Link


Terror Networks
Osama Bin Laden will never surrender, says ex-jihadi
2006-03-09
A Saudi Muslim scholar who spent years with Arab jihadis in Afghanistan said he knows Osama bin Laden well and that the Al Qaeda leader would never surrender, according to a report published Wednesday. “He will never surrender because he seeks death and yearns for it,” said Musa al-Qorni in an interview with Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.

He added that he believed bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, is at present under the sway of the “Egyptian jihad group” led by Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri and acts according to its plans. Qorni said he and others tried to convince bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s to come back to Saudi Arabia and “lead a normal life”, but that the Saudi-born militant snubbed them and returned to Afghanistan.
I was thinking about this very subject yesterday, and started to write on it. Naturally, with such an interesting idea, I was interrupted and couldn't get back to it.

I think we've seen enough ferocious bad guyz by now to have a pretty good statistical feel for their actions when cornered. Some are assisted from the gene pool without being given the opportunity to demonstrate their "yearning for death," notably by being helizapped, so they can be dropped from the equation. Udai and Qusay fought it out to the bitter end. In Soddy Arabia they tend to shoot it out to the bitter end — one wonders, in fact, if they're given a choice in the matter.

But Sammy was found cowering in the receiving end of an outhouse and gave up. Abu Zubaydah was wounded and gave up. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured in his underwear. Ramzi bin al-Shibh let the minions do the shooting, then gave up. Abdur Rehman gave up, complaining that his human rights had been violated when RAB turned off the water. Bangla Bhai managed to set fire to himself, but then he gave up. Abu Faraj al-Libbi? Captured. Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, ditto. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, captured. Hambali, captured. Hassan Ghul, captured. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, captured. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani ("Foopy"), also captured. Louai Sakra, captured.

Are we getting the impression that "You'll never take me alive, coppers!" only applies to the lower ranks? I think that when Binny's finally cornered his feet will turn out to be the same fine grade of clay as Sammy's. Same with Zawahiri, and same with Zarqawi. You heard read it here first.
Link


Terror Networks
Nasar's legacy to al-Qaeda strategy
2005-12-02
Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, AKA Abu Musab al-Suri, one of this decade's most important leaders of the international jihadist movement, published a 1,600 page book in December 2004 entitled "The International Islamic Resistance Call" which outlines future strategies for the international jihadist movement. Al-Suri is not only a founder of both al-Qaeda and the Algerian GIA, but also widely acknowledged as a master of both urban warfare and the usage of explosives. His book begins by dictating that armed jihad must be supported through a "
background of political thinking and understanding and programming".

Once the jihadist groups have created a sustainable civil society, they can begin al-Suri's three stage battle: 
 [first] all forms for war presence [sic] of the enemy in our land 
 other world countries second, and at their homeland third". Throughout his book, al-Suri names these enemy countries as the "
Jews, Americans, British, Russian, and any and all the NATO countries, as well as any country takes the position of oppressing Islam and Muslims". He further provides a clear indication that only by carrying out terrorist attacks and decentralized urban warfare would the jihadi network win. Al-Suri explicitly calls for attacks on all sectors of the enemy's influence, both civilian and military. According to his book, the "
political, military, economical, educational, missionary, and tourist presence
etc in our countries" are the primary targets of jihad.

Al-Suri then describes the "third generation of mujahideen" as a generation currently in the process of being defined, born after the "September happenings, the occupation in Iraq, and the Palestinian Intifada". While extorting the third generation to keep to their roots in the international movement, al-Suri describes his 1990 decision that jihadist groups can not hope to confront America and its allies directly. The groups must move from the classical structure for an underground organization, which a hierarchical "pyramid" shaped chain of command, to a "secret gang-war [structure], which has different and numerous cells untied together [separate cells]."
Link


Afghanistan-Pak-India
Al-Qaeda Arrest Not Linked To Madrid Bombing, Says Minister
2005-11-03
Islamabad, 3 Nov. (AKI) - The Pakistani police have captured a leading al-Qaeda suspect and killed another, but the authorities have denied media reports that the suspect is a Syrian, Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, who is wanted in connection with the 2004 Madird train bombings. Pakistan's information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that the men were Arab but that he was not the al-Qaeda operative that the media had been speculating about. At a press conference in Islamabad, the minister also said that for security reasons, the identities of the men would not be revealed.
"I can say no more"
Earlier reports had quoted unnamed government officials saying that they were checking to see if the man that was captured was Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, also known as Abu Musab al-Suri. A Syrian national with dual Spanish citizenship, Nasar is alleged to have played a role in the attacks which killed 191 people in March 2004. The US authorities have offered a five million dollar reward for his capture.
Of course, he may really be Nasar, Pakistan has denied capturing people they've captured before

The US Justice Department website said that Nasar is a former trainer at two terror camps in Afghanistan who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It said Nasar worked with another key militant to train extremists in the use of poisons and chemicals. The Pakistani authorities have arrested several people beleived to be al-Qeda leaders including Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was captured in May. Al-Libbi, who was described as being the "al-Qaeda's number three", was handed over the the authorities in the United States.

Additional: Intelligence officials said a third suspect from a Pakistani militant group was also captured in the raid this week in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province. "I can only confirm that there was an encounter, and our security forces arrested one suspected al-Qaida terrorist while another terrorist was killed," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. He did not identify the suspects.
---------
One of the intelligence officials, based in Quetta, said the suspect who died in the firing was a Saudi named Shaikh Ali Mohammed al-Salim. He said al-Salim had been living with Nasar.
They were lovers...
He said the third suspect was from Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani Islamic militant group allegedly linked to al-Qaida.
Link



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