Top al Qaeda members captured

American forces in Afghanistan have taken into custody the first high-level members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organisation, senior Washington officials said today.

Plans are being made to fly the captives to an airbase in the US. One official said he expects the captives to supply at least "moderate" information relevant to finding and apprehending Bin Laden, still top of Washington's list of aims in the Afghanistan campaign.

The captives include Sayef Abdel-Rahman, who is the son of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, found guilty in 1995 of organising a plot to bomb targets in New York, notably the George Washington Bridge.

The younger Abdel-Rahman, in his twenties, is a close associate of Bin Laden. A Washington official said Abdel-Rahman, who recruited terrorists, could be flown to Andersen Air Force base in Guam to be questioned by the CIA, Knight Newspapers reported today.

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