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TEHRAN DENIES AL-QAEDA MEMBERS HAVE FLED.

An unidentified "source close to" the intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in the 13 August issue of "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" that Al-Qaeda commander Ayman al-Zawahiri has left Iran but Saad bin Laden and Saif al-Adel remain there. According to this source, Intelligence Minister Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi assigned personnel to track down the Al-Qaeda personnel and arrest them after al-Adel's role in the May bombings in Riyadh became known. He told the weekly that this alarmed the IRGC's special-operations unit, the Qods Force, because it had provided safe houses for the Al-Qaeda members in Tehran and in Gilan, Markazi, and Sistan va Baluchistan provinces. The source said Al-Zawahiri got out of Iran with help from IRGC deputy commander General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr. They apparently knew each other from the IRGC's days in Sudan. An anonymous Foreign Ministry official on 14 August rejected the report, according to ISNA. He said the people identified in the "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" article were never in Iran, there are no links between the IRGC and Al-Qaeda, and all the arrested members of Al-Qaeda remain in detention. BS

Comment: Who will trust them?