Bin Laden's No. 2 'Captured in Iran'

Osama bin Laden's most senior lieutenant, the Egyptian militant Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been captured and jailed in Tehran, a leading Iranian newspaper reported yesterday. Zawahiri, the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was arrested several days ago and has been imprisoned in the city's Evin jail, where political prisoners are usually held, the Hayat-e-Nou newspaper said.

If the report is correct, the arrest is the most serious strike at the heart of Bin Laden's al-Qaida network since the World Trade Centre attacks, and a diplomatic coup for Tehran.

The FBI has Zawahiri on its most-wanted list in connection with the August 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa in which 224 people were killed. It has offered a $25m reward for information leading to his capture.

The Farsi-language paper gave few details yesterday about the arrest and no indication of the source of its information. The paper is regarded as reliable and is run by Hadi Khamenei, a leading legislator and the brother of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Iran's foreign ministry said last night. "The news that has been published in the Hayat-e-Nou newspaper is not true. We deny it," Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.

In Kabul the interim government said many al-Qaida and Taliban fighters had crossed into Iran but it had no information on Zawahiri. "We are not aware that a person of al-Zawahiri's stature has been arrested," foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad said.

Zawahiri, 50, who wears thick spectacles and a long, dark beard, is regarded as Bin Laden's closest ally. He has been living with him in Afghanistan for several years and often served as his personal doctor. In an interview in June last year, Bin Laden said he had merged Zawahiri's Islamic Jihad with al-Qaida.

In December, Afghan commanders involved in the attacks on Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan said they believed Zawahiri had recently been at the camp. His wife and three daughters were later reported to have died in a US bombing raid, although it was thought Zawahiri was not with them at the time.

Washington has criticised Tehran for allowing al-Qaida and Taliban fighters to slip across its border and Iran was named by George Bush as one of three "axis of evil" countries.

A little background...

Doctor bin Evil Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri is not only Osama bin Laden's right hand man, he is the diabolical mastermind behind the jihad.
Color mug http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/10/23/uss.cole.01/
According to Arab analysts, al-Zawahiri was instrumental in forging the coalition of al-Jihad (or the wing of it he now controls after its fragmentation by Egyptian security authorities several years ago), Bin Laden;s forces, two Pakistani groups and another from Bangladesh in February 1998 with the purpose of waging war on the USA. The hundreds of al-Jihad members" estimates range as high as 1,000, about one-third of Bin Laden's force in Afghanistan" with al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan formed a hard core of seasoned militants around which the coalition, the International Front for Fighting Jews and Crusaders, has been built. Al-Zawahiri has been a central figure in the conflict waged by Islamic zealots in Egypt since the 1970s, fighting alongside the main Islamic group, al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, with the aim of establishing an Islamic state. Indeed, al-Zawahiri has been active since 1966, when as a boy of 15, he was arrested for membership of al-Ilkwan al-Muslimun, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamic movement, committed to purging Egyptian society of foreign influences, particularly the British, was founded in 1928 by Egyptian schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna. Later outlawed, it became the catalyst for most of the militant Muslim organisations that sprang up across the Arab world. LINK
Osama bin Laden (left) stands beside Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a video broadcast October 5th. Experts differ on which man is really in charge. "Zawahiri has a different kind of experience," (than bin Laden) "He is not interested in fighting in the mountains. He is thinking more internationally, involved in militancy inside Egypt. He was behind the terrorist attacks on tourists [the 1997 attack in Luxor left 58 dead]. He is the person who can do the things that happened on Sept. 11." LINK	6. WTC, Brooklyn Bridge, American Flag
The Assassination of Anwar Sadat
Young al-Zawahiri behind bars for Sadat	Carter, Begin, Sadat lg Sadat Assassination b/w
Zawahiri	Queen Hatshepsut's Temple at Luxor, scene of the massacre
Zawahiri and bin Laden	2. Kenyan Embassy
U.S.S. Cole
Janes Video Grab -- This video grab shows Ayman al-Zawahiri, the ideologue behind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network now wanted for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The grab is taken from a video tape circulated in Kuwait in June 2001.	If the negotiations, continuing for decades between the Palestinian Authority and the Jews under the auspices of America, have brought us nothing but an increase in killing and hostility toward the Muslim people in Palestine, and an increase in repeated attempts at the destruction of the Aqsa Mosque, then when will we attain the liberation of Palestine? When will we attain the rights of Muslims in Palestine? When will we stop the hostility toward the Aqsa Mosque? ...The issue of Palestine, or more precisely the Israeli-American crime in Palestine, will remain the essential axis of the conflict in the heart of the Muslim world and the greatest impetus for Muslims' jihad against America. America will disregard her crime in Palestine as she pleases. And the leaders of the world will disregard the tragedy. The roots of terrorism – as they call it – include the problem of Palestine. America will remain an exporter of her transgression and the illusion of her power and arrogance. But we confirm for [America] that the issue of our jihad, by God's will, [remains] until we liberate our holy sites from the American Jewish enemy, until the last American Jewish soldier departs from Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula and every Muslim country. ...Bush is lying to his people. Defending this battle, he claimed he has destroyed the al-Qaeda organization and torn apart the Taliban (battle-)lines. ...The whole world will know after the next strikes- by God's will – which of us is the liar and who is truthful. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/10/21043.shtml
WANTED! Ayman Al Zawahiri is a physician and the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. This organization opposes the secular Egyptian Government and seeks its overthrow through violent means. Al Zawahiri is believed to now serve as an advisor and doctor to Usama Bin Laden and is currently thought to be in Afghanistan. He has been indicted for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. Indicted for: murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States; conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals outside the United States; attack on a Federal Facility resulting in death… LINK

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