Authorities struggle to locate missing Imam

Lebanese and Libyan authorities are coordinating attempts to pursue associates of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to unveil the fate of missing imam Moussa al-Sadr, Lebanon's An Nahar daily reported on Friday. The newspaper said that the Libyan dictator's spymaster, Abdullah Senussi, was at the top of the list of wanted individuals for his perceived knowledge of al-Sadr’s case. Senussi, who was detained last month in Mauritania, is wanted by France as well as the International Criminal Court for terror charges. Most of al-Sadr’s followers are convinced that Gaddafi ordered the Muslim cleric killed when he flew to Tripoli along with two companions in 1978. Tripoli had insisted the Shiite cleric and his companions left the Libyan capital on a flight to Rome and suggested he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites. Libyan government spokesperson Nasser al-Maneh told the Al Jazeera news network on Wednesday that forensic doctors were carrying out DNA tests on human remains unearthed in a Libyan cemetery believed to be that of the missing imam. He said the remains were taken to a hospital in Tripoli for tests. But Lebanese foreign minister Adnan Mansour, who arrived in Beirut from a visit to Tripoli on Wednesday, denied the report.