Iran Denies Presence of al-Qaeda Terrorists on Its Territory

Iran denied Saturday a report by the New York Times, according to which two Israeli agents killed Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the second command in al-Qaeda, on its soil at the behest of the United States.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that there were no "terrorists" from al-Qaeda in Iran.

"Washington and Tel Aviv are trying from time to time to link Iran with such groups by lying and leaking false information to the media to avoid responsibility for the criminal activities of this group and other terrorist groups in the region," it added.

The New York Times reported Friday that the second Al-Qaeda official who was accused in the United States of launching attacks on US embassies in East Africa in 1998, was secretly assassinated in Iran in August.

US intelligence officials confirmed to the newspaper that Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, who was on the list of wanted terrorists by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was shot dead in the streets of Tehran by two people who were on a motorcycle.