US questions al-Qaida chief

US authorities were yesterday interrogating the newly-captured chief of al-Qaida operations in the Persian Gulf.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, was arrested in an undisclosed country during the last few weeks. The Saudi was now in US custody, US government officials said.

He is probably the highest-ranking lieutenant of Osama bin Laden seized since the March capture of Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida's chief co-ordinator of terrorist cells around the world.

In its weekly bulletin to state and local law enforcement officers, the FBI warned terrorists might try to attack shipping, possibly using scuba divers to put explosives on vessels.

The questioning of other senior figures, such as Abu Zubaydah and Omar al-Farouq, bin Laden's south-east Asia operations chief, have provided a wealth of information often of unknown reliability of planned terrorist operations.

In the Cole attack, US officials have said al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the bombers from the United Arab Emirates and may have provided money. He went to Afghanistan after the bombing, which killed 17 sailors.

"He has a reputation as a ruthless operator," said one US official. "He is a very committed follower of Osama bin Laden."

US officials believe he was in Afghanistan, around the time the war began there in October 2001. He is thought to have moved to Pakistan when the Taliban fell.

In addition to the Cole attack, al-Nashiri is suspected of helping direct the August 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.