NEW YORK, April 4: Abu Zubaydah, the top-ranking Al Qaeda leader who was shot three times trying to escape arrest last week in Pakistan, is in “fairly serious” condition, hindering close questioning, said The Washington Post quoting a senior administration official.

The paper said that though the official said “doctors expect he will live,” Abu Zubaydah, who operated as a top field commander of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network for the past several months, has serious wounds in the stomach and groin. He has been receiving “excellent medical care,” the official said.

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made a reference to Abu Zubaydah’s condition, telling reporters: “We have every interest in seeing that he remains alive and has an opportunity to discuss a variety of things with us.” He noted that Abu Zubaydah “has several bullet holes in him, and our concern is keeping him alive at the present time.”

Abu Zubaydah was captured last Thursday in Faisalabad when the local police, accompanied by CIA and FBI personnel, carried out a series of long-planned raids on 12 safe houses in that city and Lahore, where suspected Al Qaeda terrorists and their compatriots had taken up residence.

Although one of Abu Zubaydah’s companions was killed and others wounded slightly in a shootout during the Faisalabad raid, US officials said on Wednesday that capturing him with some 20 other Al Qaeda Arabs and about 40 Pakistanis represented a major success for the joint Pakistan-US intelligence operation.

Most public attention has been on efforts to find Osama and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri. But the first goal of US officials has been to develop information about terrorist operations that have already been planned so that they can be disrupted or prevented, the WP said.

Speaking of Abu Zubaydah, Rumsfeld emphasized that approach, saying: “We intend to get every single thing out of him to try to prevent terrorist acts in the future.”

Officials have begun to analyze computer hard drives, disks and documents, including phone numbers and names, found in the raided houses. Papers and notes found in the pockets of pants, shirts and coats of Al Qaeda personnel surprised by the raids have already provided leads, one intelligence analyst said.

Rumsfeld, referring to such material, told reporters: “All of that is in our custody and all of that is being examined.”