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High-ranking al Qaeda operative nabbed in Afghanistan
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The U.S. military has captured a high-ranking al Qaeda operative in Afghanistan who played a major role in sending terrorists to Iraq and other countries to kill American troops and civilians.
The Pentagon identified the detainee as Inayatullah, an Afghan national. He was captured earlier this year in Afghanistan and shipped to the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison this week rather than being held in the war theater, where many Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners are held.
He was moved because of his senior al Qaeda status, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told The Examiner on Thursday.
While the Pentagon dubbed Inayatullah a senior al Qaeda leader, he is not at a level that would merit the title of “high-value” detainee, of which there are 15 at Guantanamo, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. But the military believes it has nabbed a key operative who admitted under interrogation that he belonged to al Qaeda.
“Inayatullah attested to facilitating the movement of foreign fighters,” Gordon said. “And Inayatullah met with local operatives, developed travel routes and coordinated documentation, accommodation and vehicles for smuggling unlawful combatants throughout countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq.”
Inayatullah also admitted to being the leader of al Qaeda in the city of Zahedan, Iran, near the Afghan border.
Like the other 340 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Inayatullah will undergo a combatant status review tribunal to determine whether the military is justified in holding him.
The military this summer announced that all but one of the 15 high-value prisoners completed such reviews and were determined to be unlawful combatants subject to criminal charges and trials by military commissions.
A 15th al Qaeda figure, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, is the most recently captured and has not yet undergone a status review. The CIA captured al-Iraqi, who was close to Osama bin Laden, in late 2006 as he was attempting to re-enter Iraq.
A military intelligence source has told The Examiner that al-Iraqi, like other al Qaeda operatives, entered Iraq through Iran. Most al Qaeda suicide bombers arrive in Iraq via Syria.
rscarborough@dcexaminer.com
