LATEST ON AL-QAEDA!

YEAR 2008

1.6 July 2008 - A former driver of Osama Bin Laden, Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, is convicted of providing material support for terrorism at the first war crimes trial to be held in the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is said to be al-Qaeda's number three

2.6 June 2008 - The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four other key suspects appear at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan in 2003, dismisses the trial as an "inquisition". He says he has had five years "under torture" and wishes to become a martyr.

3.31 March 2008 - The US charges a Guantanamo Bay detainee with war crimes for the 1998 attack on the US embassy in Tanzania.

Libi is thought to have directed recent suicide attacks in Afghanistan

The Pentagon claims Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani - who was captured in 2004 - worked for al-Qaeda after the bombing as a forger, trainer and as a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden.

4.1 February 2008 - A senior al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, is killed. News of his death - thought to be the result of a US airstrike - emerges on a website used by Islamist groups.
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, later swears revenge for the al-Libi's killing.