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Al Qaeda Said to Have Migrated to Iran

(Washington Times) - Aamir Latif Pakistan's intelligence community believes that the operational base of al Qaeda has shifted to Iran from Pakistan after the arrest of the network's military operations chief, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on Feb. 28 - with some 250 al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives hiding in Iran. Saif Al-Adel, an Egyptian national who has been appointed the military chief of al Qaeda after the arrest of Mohammed, is hiding in the Iranian city of Zahedan, which borders with Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence officials say. Until the arrest of Mohammed, Al-Adel had been in Pakistan's tribal belt, near Quetta, where he was busy recruiting fighters. Other leaders include Osama bin Laden's eldest son, Saad bin Laden; Yaaz bin Sifat, a top ranking al Qaeda planner; Abu Mohammad al-Masri; and various former ministers of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government. A former mayor of Kabul during the Taliban regime, Mohammed Islam Haani, was arrested recently by Afghan troops while trying to cross into Iran. Intelligence officials believe the departure of Al-Adel and others is partly a result of Pakistan's massive hunt for them in a remote area of Baluchistan province, which abuts both Afghanistan and Iran.
2003-07-07 00:00:00
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