A Dubai-based satellite television station is reporting that al-Qaida’s No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the network’s spokesman, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, are two of the suspected terrorists being held in Iran, reports Agence France-Presse.
The report says the TV station is quoting “Western diplomatic sources” in reporting the development. One of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden’s sons also is said to be held.
AFP reports the group of detainees include Saudis, Kuwaitis, Jordanians and Iraqi Kurds.
While Iranian officials confirmed this week that al-Qaida members had been arrested, a government spokesman refused to give detailed information about the men.
CNN reports Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said the report of al-Zawahiri’s arrest was untrue.
“First of all this is not the case,” Asefi said, according to CNN. “The people in question have not yet been identified. Also, there is no reason that even after the identification process is completed that we should discuss this issue with the media because this is a security issue.”
Iran-based al-Qaida operatives are suspected in last month’s suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the news agency reports.
Recent press reports place several al-Qaida leaders in Iran.
As WorldNetDaily reported, al-Zawahiri has close ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Division – Iran’s Islamic shock troops. The terror leader has been on the Bush administration’s hit list since the “war on terrorism” began and is suspected of involvement in deadly embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. In December, intelligence reports said al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, was in Bangladesh.
This might be the dumbest anti-hate campaign ever
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