Captured al Qaeda man could hold key to bin Laden

For a man said to have been number three in al Qaeda, Abu Faraj Farj al Liby managed to keep a remarkably low profile.

His picture wasn't even among the mugshots on a US Federal Bureau of Investigation website of "most wanted terrorists", although US counter-terrorism officials say he became al Qaeda's operations chief and third in command two years ago.

But Pakistani intelligence sources say the Libyan's capture presents the best chance yet of tracking down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

"If anyone in Pakistan knows their whereabouts it would be him," one intelligence official told Reuters, although Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said it was "premature" to speculate.

Mr Liby shot to prominence in Pakistan after intelligence sources named him as the real brains behind two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

He was characterised as the head of al Qaeda's operations there, although the hits on Musharraf carried out by Pakistani militants were ordered by Mr Zawahri.

The authorities released a photograph of Mr Liby to Pakistani newspapers in the months after those attacks, but few details about the man were disclosed.

An Interior Ministry photograph of the captured militant showed a bearded man suffering from a skin ailment akin to vitiligo, a disease causing blotchiness due to a loss of pigmentation.

The mugshot contrasted sharply with the earlier one, which showed a bearded Liby looking smart in a collar and tie.

With Mr Liby in custody, Pakistani security officials were ready to reveal more about the shadowy figure that western intelligence says took over the mantle of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda number three credited with planning the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.

Born in 1965, Mr Liby first came to Pakistan during the 1980s to fight in a jihad, or holy war, covertly backed by the United States, against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

And he had helped recruit Arab mujahideen, holy warriors, for the cause that also brought Saudi-born bin Laden to the region.

It was also during this time that Mr Liby, who speaks Urdu, married a Pakistani woman.

After the Afghan jihad ended, Mr Liby went on to join bin Laden in Sudan in the early 1990s, and according to Pakistani intelligence sources, he became one of al Qaeda's operations chiefs in North Africa.

Within al Qaeda circles, the 1.67-metre-tall Liby was known as Dr Taufeeq, a common Pakistani name.

But his real name, according to Pakistani intelligence sources, is Ibrahim, while his father's name is Faraj.

The same age as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mr Liby was a close friend of the man known as "KSM" - a Kuwait-born Pakistani who recruited many relatives for al Qaeda from the tribal dominated province of Baluchistan in western Pakistan.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, in March 2003 was the biggest coup so far in the war on al Qaeda.

Mr Liby, according to Western intelligence sources, stepped straight into his shoes.

"He took over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's function and was a member of the former military committee (of al Qaeda), responsible for weapons, financing and equipment.

"Obviously he also had contacts with local terrorist groups in Pakistan as well."

In a major breakthrough last July, Pakistani police arrested Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert who relayed e-mail messages between al Qaeda members.

Pakistani intelligence sources now say Khan had been in contact with Liby at the time of his arrest.

His capture led to the arrest of more than 20 other suspects, including a dozen in Britain, and prompted Pakistani officials to say they expected to catch al Qaeda planners within months.

Pakistani intelligence sources said Mr Liby, who had satellite phones and a high frequency wireless when he was caught, had also been in contact with operatives in New York, London and Indonesia and the Philippines - the Southeast Asian nations where al Qaeda extended its reach.

Skilled in acquiring forged documents, Mr Liby helped many other militants escape after US-backed forces ousted the Taliban, al Qaeda's Afghan protectors, from power in Kabul in late 2001.

Accounts of where and when he was captured differ - but most say he was arrested on May 2 near the town of Mardan, in North West Frontier province, 110 kilometres northwest of Islamabad.