Al-Qaida: Dead or captured

--Oct. 2001

Rifa’I Taha Musa, former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group’s military wing, is quietly extradited from Syria to Egypt after being arrested at Damascus Airport.  Shortly after arriving in Egypt, he was executed, say Egyptian security officials. One of the signers of a bin Laden-Zawahiri fatwa calling for the killing of Americans, Taha had appeared with bin Laden and Zawahiri in a videotape released in September 2000, just prior to the bombing of the USS Cole.  Six days after the bombing, Taha praised the bombers, saying “"Our officers and soldiers, and the sons of our people in Egypt, should learn the lesson of the U.S. destroyer in Aden; they have the Suez Canal through which dozens of U.S. and Jewish ships pass."  

--Nov. 12, 2001

An Islamic militant leader who threatened the government of Uzbekistan and who was a key ally of bin Laden is killed in northern Afghanistan. Juma Namangani, 32, was head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group with close ties to al-Qaida.  He was fatally injured during fighting for the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where the Taliban were routed on Nov. 9. He died days later as a result of his wounds.

--Nov. 17, 2001

Mohamed Atef, al-Qaida's military chief and a man viewed as no lower than No. 3 in the terrorist group, is killed by a Predator missile as he meets with Taliban and al-Qaida officials in Afghanistan. He remains the highest-ranking al-Qaida official killed in the U.S. war on terrorism. Atef was also related through marriage to bin Laden, his daughter having married bin Laden's son, Mohamed, in January.

--Late December 2001

Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi, director of al-Qaida's Khalden terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, is captured in Pakistan after fleeing across the border.  He is first taken first to a ship, the USS Bataan, off the Pakistan coast. His arrest later leads to the capture of Abu Zubaydah.

--March 19, 2002

Khattab, a Jordanian Islamist with ties to al-Qaida, is killed in Chechnya by Russian troops.  He was killed by a poisoned letter slipped him by Russia's Federal Security Service, said rebel leaders.  Khattab, the nom de guerre for Omar Ibn al Khattab, had fought with Chechen rebels since 1995 and was seen as their most effective guerrilla fighter.  He dismissed claims that he was working with bin Laden, but admitted that he had fought with him in Afghanistan against Soviet troops during the 1980’s.

--March 28, 2002

Abu Zubaydah, the training chief for al-Qaida, is severely wounded as he is captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan.  He becomes the first major al-Qaida leader captured. His arrest leads to the arrests of Ramzi bin-al-shibh in September as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi in March 2003.

--June 8, 2002

As part of an investigation into planned Gibraltar attacks, Abu Zubair al-Haili, a 300-pound Saudi nicknamed “the Bear” is captured in Morocco. Moroccan officials said Al-Haili is connected to a plot to bomb U.S. and British warships crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, between Morocco and Spain. Al-Haili is believed to have run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and is viewed as director of al-Qaida’s North Africa operations.  Seven other Saudis were arrested in connection with the alleged plot.

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