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.