Libyan al Qaeda leader targeted

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Security forces here are hunting a Libyan al Qaeda leader whom senior Pakistani intelligence officials see as a possible key to finding Osama bin Laden and others in the terrorist network’s inner circle.

Captured al Qaeda suspects have consistently named a Libyan, Abu Faraj Farj, as the man who gave them instructions for attacks, including two attempts to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf late last year, two senior intelligence officials said Thursday.

The suspects also say they believe the Libyan is in direct contact with bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman Zawahiri, said the intelligence sources, who spoke on condition that they not be identified.

Suspecting Farj’s hand in numerous terrorist plots, Pakistani investigators think that if they can capture the Libyan, he may lead them to bin Laden, the sources said

“We will know much more about the inner workings (of al Qaeda) and have better information on the latest position of Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri and others in the hierarchy,” one of the intelligence officials said.

Pakistani officials see Farj as a key player in a second string of al Qaeda leaders who are stepping in to replace killed and captured commanders. The Libyan has planned operations in Pakistan and abroad, and falls somewhere in the Top 10 of al Qaeda leadership, the official added.

In local newspapers Wednesday, Pakistan’s government published a picture of Farj, wearing a jacket, tie and a neatly trimmed beard, and offered nearly $350,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Five Pakistanis also were identified in the notice, which had a red headline, “Most Wanted Terrorists.” Rewards for their capture start at about $85,000.

Pakistani suspect Amjad Hussain, alias Amjad Farooqi, also has a nearly $350,000 bounty on his head.

A source said he is thought to have played a lead role in the 2001 slaying of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl.

In the past month, Pakistani security forces have arrested more than a dozen foreign al Qaeda suspects. The army has been carrying out raids in tribal areas, which were once out of bounds to the military, and officials believe the pressure is scattering al Qaeda members to towns and cities farther south.

An Algerian al Qaeda suspect was captured Thursday in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, after police shot him in the neck when he tried to run a roadblock near his house. A second man escaped, police said.

Farj, also known as Abu Faraj al-Libbi and Dr. Taufeeq, also has been based in the Pashtun tribal areas of South Waziristan, on Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan, the intelligence sources said.

“According to our information, he’s the person in charge of operations in the tribal areas,” one of the intelligence officials said.

“We feel he has been a mastermind, and a direct link between al Qaeda and Pakistani elements, which are an extension of al Qaeda, and which are responsible for the assassination attempts on President Musharraf,” he said.

It is possible that Farj “may have slipped out of this region altogether, or he may have gone deep underground,” one of the officials added.

Suspected al Qaeda computer coordinator Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, captured July 13, also named Farj as one of his contacts. Khan’s laptop computers and disks contained what investigators believe are reconnaissance reports on major financial buildings in the United States.

The information led to raids in Britain, where police have charged eight men under the country’s anti-terrorism laws.