Thursday October 18 9:40 PM ET

U.S. Sources: Al Qaeda Deaths Not Top Lieutenants

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have been killed by U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, but there is no evidence the Saudi-born militant or his top lieutenants were among them, U.S. sources said on Thursday.

``There have been some al Qaeda members who have died'' since the U.S. bombing campaign started on Oct. 7, one official said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. sources told Reuters there is no evidence that bin Laden or his top lieutenants Ayman Zawahri, Mohammed Atef who is also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri and Abu Zubaydah are dead.

Zawahri is also leader of Egypt's al-Jihad. He was tried in Egypt for links to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and served three years in jail for having illegal arms.

Aside from members of al Qaeda, U.S. officials have said previously that two family members of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were killed on the first night of raids.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier on Thursday said it was possible a senior al Qaeda official might have been killed in U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan, but said he could not absolutely confirm that.

``Is it accurate that a senior lieutenant of al Qaeda might have been killed? Yes,'' Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing. ''It might have happened. Do I know it of certain knowledge? No, I've not been on the ground. But it would be a good thing for the world.''

The United States has blamed bin Laden and his network for orchestrating the Sept. 11 suicide hijack attacks that killed nearly 5,400 people when planes were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.

The U.S. sources would not reveal where in Afghanistan the al Qaeda members had been killed or by what specific weapons.

LOW-FLYING GUNSHIPS

The U.S. military this week began using low-flying AC-130 gunships equipped with 105mm cannons and rapid-fire machine guns that slowly circle an area looking for moving targets.

The bombardment wore down the Taliban's air defenses so U.S. air forces engaged in closer-range operations and defense officials say they have put al Qaeda on the run.

``We have seen some movement of what we believe to be the al Qaeda forces, and they have been specifically targeted while they were moving,'' Rumsfeld said.

Members of the extremist network are using civilian areas and mosques as cover. ``There is no question but that the al Qaeda and the Taliban are using mosques,'' he told reporters.

``They're using heavily populated areas for their command and control, and for their gathering places purposely because they know that we are a country that tries to avoid high collateral damage targets and have in the past and will in the future,'' Rumsfeld said.

``So they do take advantage of that. In fact we see snippets of information where they are saying that to each other,'' he said.

Al Qaeda's suspected training camps were high on the U.S. target list since the start of the bombing campaign, but were believed to have been largely vacant during the strikes.

The United States wanted to help Afghan opposition forces succeed against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld said, noting that the opposition was moving forward toward the northeast where there was an al Qaeda unit ``that they've been working on.''

The U.S. military receives ``bits of information'' about the location of al Qaeda forces and then goes after them, he said.

Asked whether the U.S. military was any closer to finding bin Laden, Rumsfeld reiterated: ``If bin Laden were gone today, tomorrow, the problem would remain and we're determined to deal with the entire problem.''

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001