US sets bounty on terror suspect

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday posted a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, an Al Qaeda operative who allegedly ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, he trained terrorists in the use of poisons and chemicals, the State Department said.

Nasar is a Syrian with dual Spanish nationality.

In September 2003, he was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon for terrorist activities connected to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization. Ten of the 35, including bin Laden, were charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and using Spain as a base.

Garzon had not traced Nasar's movements completely, but said he either taught at or ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan in the early 1990s and again beginning in 1998.