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Britain Charges Egyptian in Killing of Anti-Taliban Leader
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
The Associated Press

In 1994, El-Sirri was sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt, where security officials allege he was in the upper echelons of the military wing of Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group blamed for the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. "It's an honor that I don't deserve," he told the Associated Press shortly before his arrest.

LONDON -- AP
An Egyptian activist was charged Tuesday with providing journalist credentials to suicide bombers who killed the military chief of Afghanistan's opposition alliance.

Yasser el-Sirri, 39, was the first person charged in connection with the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood, the legendary battle leader of the Northern Alliance.

Two men posing as journalists -- allegedly using a letter of accreditation el-Sirri gave them -- detonated a bomb hidden in their camera while they interviewed Massood in his northern Afghanistan headquarters on Sept. 9. Massood was fatally wounded and both of the bombers were killed.
(More: St. Petersburg Times News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan