Al Qaeda escapee caught in Afghanistan: Report

Kabul, Nov 13: US forces in Afghanistan have captured an al Qaeda operative who escaped from the main US military prison in the country last year, a Pakistani newspaper reported today.

The man, identified as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani, was captured recently in the southeastern Afghan province of Khost, the News newspaper said, citing Taliban supporters in the Pakistani border region of North Waziristan.

The US military said on Nov. 6 a ''known al Qaeda operative and five other extremists'' had been captured during an operation near Khost town early that day.

It did not identify any of those captured. A US military spokesman today referred queries to the US Department of Defence.

Al-Qahtani has been referred to in some news reports as Mohammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani.

Four Arab al Qaeda militants escaped from the heavily fortified US detention centre at Bagram air base, the US military's main base in Afghanistan, 50 km north of Kabul, on July 11 last year.

At the time, the US military declined to identify them but described them as ''dangerous enemy combatants''.

One of the escapees was one of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's top global lieutenants, Omar Faruq.

British troops in Iraq's second biggest city, Basra, shot Faruq dead on September 25 this year as he resisted arrest during a pre-dawn raid on his hideout.

US leaders had described Faruq as the top al Qaeda operative in southeast Asia. He was caught in Indonesia in 2002 and was held at Bagram until his escape.

Reuters