 |
|
Zawahiri’s death "a rumor," says Washington
|
KABUL,
October 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. military
officials in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 3, sought to discredit
reports that Ayman Al-Zawahiri, a top aide of Osama bin Laden, had
been killed.
In
a report from Islamabad, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency cited unnamed
sources as saying that Al-Zawahiri was killed in a special operation
carried out by unidentified individuals in Afghanistan. It did not
give any date.
"I
do not have any information relating to this," U.S. military
spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Roger King told Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"As
far as I know, this is a rumor and nothing more," he said.
"We
have nothing to substantiate this information," White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer also said in Washington.
On
September 19, U.S. intelligence agents examined the remains of
Al-Zawahiri to confirm whether the alleged 9/11 suspect was killed in
Afghanistan.
"The
FBI did tests on the skull of Mohammed al-Zawahiri to compare the DNA
to that of a charred skull found in Tora Bora [Afghanistan] that the
United States believed was that of Ayman Al-Zawahiri," Hany
Al-Sibai told (AFP).
"According
to my information, the tests revealed nothing, because the skull found
in Tora Bora does not belong to Ayman al-Zawahiri," added Sibai,
who heads the Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies and frequently
provides information on Arabs in Afghanistan.
On
September 11, a London-based Islamic activist told AFP that
Al-Zawahiri had recently married two widows of a comrade killed in the
U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan.
An
Afghan military chief said in December 2001 that Zawahiri had been
injured and possibly killed in an air attack near the Tora Bora cave
complex south of the eastern city of Jalalabad, but this was never
confirmed.
German
intelligence sources were reported as saying early this month that Bin
Laden, Zawahiri and other senior Al-Qaeda leaders are probably still
alive and in hiding in remote regions on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
In
fact, Sibai told AFP on last week's first anniversary of the September
11 Al-Qaeda attacks that Zawahiri recently married two widows of a
comrade killed in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, after he
himself had lost his wife, only son and one of his daughters in a U.S.
bombing raid.
He
did not specify where or when the wedding took place.
Zawahiri,
an Egyptian physician and a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is
claimed to be Bin Laden's mentor.
The
United States has offered a five million dollar reward for information
leading to his capture.
