By empty (11/13/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A senior al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan who escaped last year from Bagram prison has been captured, U.S. military sources said Monday.
A senior al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan who escaped last year from Bagram prison has been captured, U.S. military sources said Monday. Abu Nasir al-Qahtani was among six people arrested last Monday during a raid by coalition and Afghan forces in Khost province, the sources said. A coalition military press release issued at the time of al-Qahtani\'s arrest described him only as a \"known al Qaeda terrorist\" and said he was taken into custody along with Saudi and Pakistani nationals. Al-Qahtani was one of four al Qaeda detainees who escaped from the high-security detention facility at the U.S. base in Bagram in July 2005. The men later appeared in an al Qaeda video describing their detention and escape. Al-Qahtani went into the most detail about the escape, even drawing a map of the Bagram prison. He said that after sneaking off the base the four men eventually made contact with the Taliban. Another of the four escapees, Omar al-Farouq, was killed in late September in Basra, Iraq, by British troops. A coalition spokesman in Kabul said Monday that grenades, military equipment, armor-piercing rounds and AK-47 assault rifles were found during last week\'s raid. A camera containing surveillance video of nearby military installations also was recovered. (CNN)