A New Manhunt in Pakistan

By Tim McGirk; Elaine Shannon

An aggressive campaign against al-Qaeda in Pakistan has taken a toll on the group's top leadership. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the brains behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and several other experienced chiefs have been captured. And President Pervez Musharraf has lately turned up the heat. A State Department official says Pakistan has captured 30 al-Qaeda suspects in the past seven weeks alone.

But new leaders seem to be stepping in to fill the vacuum, and one in particular is emerging as a prime focus of the terrorist hunt. He is Abu Faraj Farj, a Libyan, who, Musharraf has alleged in an interview with TIME, was the "mastermind" behind two plots to assassinate him last December. U.S. officials tell TIME that Farj, 30, is thought to have taken on much of Mohammed's role: devising plans for terrorist attacks inside the U.S. and directing al-Qaeda agents and helpers to that end. "He's big," says a U.S. counterterrorism official. "He's a major player." The Pakistanis have placed a bounty of $341,000 on his head. But catching him won't be easy. The Pakistanis think he is operating out of the rugged country on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the very region where Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding and has proved so elusive.

--By Tim McGirk and Elaine Shannon