US says it has captured al-Qaida's Gulf operations chief

Al-Qaida leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the network's chief of operations in the Gulf, has been captured according to senior US government officials.

Al-Nashiri, a suspected mastermind of the destroyer USS Cole bombing in October 2000, was captured in an undisclosed foreign country earlier this month.

He is the highest-ranking al-Qaida operative captured since the CIA, FBI and Pakistani authorities captured bin Laden's operations chief, Abu Zubaydah, in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March.

US officials had recently said a senior al-Qaida leader had been caught, but they had declined to identify him.

Al-Nashiri is suspected in a number of other al-Qaida terrorist plots, including the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings.

US officials have said al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the bombers of the USS Cole from the United Arab Emirates. He then fled to Afghanistan.

In addition to the Cole attack, officials say he has been involved with a number of plots targeting the US Navy in the past three years.