BEIJING, May 30 -- Iran has denied a British newspaper report, published Sunday, that al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had fled to Iran after being seriously injured in a U.S. missile attack three weeks ago. 

    Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the report in the Sunday Times newspaper was fabricated.

    Quoting a senior insurgency commander in Iraq, the Sunday Times said the attack has left Zarqawi with shrapnel lodged in his chest and that he may have been moved to Iran.

    Washington has offered a 25 million US dollar bounty for Zarqawi, who is accused of masterminding suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations in Iraq.

    The United States has accused Iran of harboring al Qaeda militants who escaped Afghanistan after U.S. troops invaded in late 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Tehran acknowledges that al Qaeda members have managed to cross its long and hard-to-police borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    But it denies providing safe-haven to al Qaeda members and has extradited scores of suspected militants who have fled to Iran in the last four years.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)