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The Raid - compiled from AFP, AP, and Jang news agency stories posted at: http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/748750/posts

Note possible termination of Daniel Pearl's murderer. Also of interest, the sudden involvement of Pakistani Rangers who seem to have assumed custody of some prisoners thus facilitating turnover to U.S. authorities?

Pakistani police shot dead two suspected al-Qaida members and captured five others in a ferocious, four-hour gunfight Wednesday, 9/11, stepping up pressure on the remnants of the terrorist movement a year after it made its mark on the world.

Six officers, including two intelligence agents, were wounded when police stormed the top-floor apartment and the rooftop where the gunmen held out against hundreds of troops in the street below and on the roofs of nearby apartment blocks. Two of the wounded were reported in critical condition.

Karachi, a warren-like city of 12 million, has become a refuge for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan when U.S.-led coalition forces chased them into the mountains bordering Pakistan after the collapse of the Taliban regime.

Authorities said earlier this week they have captured 402 al-Qaida activists in Pakistan since the start of the war on terrorism. Most have been turned over to U.S. authorities for questioning in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida's leaders.

Last week, a reporter for the Gulf-based Al-Jazeera television network said he interviewed two of bin Laden's lieutenants in Karachi - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh - both of whom admitted they helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

The attack began Wednesday morning when agents of Pakistan's intelligence agency and police raided the apartment after receiving a tip that suspicious people were living there.

Tracing a satellite phone call, an intelligence agency and police personnel killed two suspected al-Qaeda activists of foreign origin and arrested five others after an encounter here on Wednesday, police sources and eyewitnesses said. Among those arrested, there were two Pakistanis, two Arabs and a Tajik, all of whom were unable to speak Urdu, it was reliably learnt.

Eyewitnesses said at about 9:00 am, a large contingent of police and officials in plain clothes surrounded a three-storey residential building and arrested two foreigners, appearing to be Afghans or Arabs from outside the building. However, sensing danger, their other accomplices started firing and hurled hand grenades on the team of law-enforcement agencies injuring three cops.

The police returned the fire, however, due to heavy firing by the terrorists, more police force was called out and the entire area was cordoned off. A contingent of Rangers also reached the spot and joined the encounter. Police and Rangers also fired tear-gas shells. After two and half hours, some of the Jawans and police managed to enter the building.

Police sources said they arrested three "unarmed bearded men", who appeared to be Afghans or Arabs, from one of the apartments, and also recovered bodies of two suspected terrorists from another room.

The sources said two terrorists, who were arrested before the encounter, were in the custody of an intelligence agency, while the Rangers took custody of the remaining three accused after heated arguments with the police official, present on the spot. However, a spokesman of the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) denied such a report and said that all the five persons were in the custody of Sindh police, who were investigating them.

Highly-placed sources told this correspondent that all the arrested accused were being investigated by a joint interrogation team, comprising officials of the intelligence agencies, police and the Rangers.

The gunmen fired and lobbed grenades from the apartment window, then fled to the roof where they took position on the corners, police and witnesses said.

It was unclear at what point the two militants were killed. An intelligence official said one of the gunmen inside the apartment scrawled "There is no God but Allah" in Arabic in his own blood on the tiles of the kitchen wall.

As the gunmen held out on the roof, police commandos in body armor and helmets entered the building and slowly worked their way to the upper floors. During a lull, police called on them to surrender. The gunmen responded with chants of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great."

Moments later, the siege ended. Police led two men out of the building, their faces covered by rags and their arms tightly bound behind them. The third captive was not seen by reporters outside.

Police, who had been stationed on the roofs of surrounding buildings, inside apartments and on the roads, fired in the air in celebration as the men were led away, most of the suspects bearded and blindfolded.

A senior police intelligence officer said the two dead suspects were Yemenis and one of them was suspected to be involved in the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl in the city earlier this year.

"We have very strong suspicions that one of them was the one who beheaded Pearl," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are rechecking this information from other intelligence agencies but one of them looked like the person suspected of murdering Pearl," he said.

Witnesses saw police bring two blindfolded men from the building after an exchange of fire lasting more than three hours.

Two bearded young men emerged later in police custody, their clothing stained with blood.

A fifth bearded young man was brought out, shouting "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great).

An AFP reporter saw slogans chalked on a wall in the street reading: "Long live al-Qaeda" and "Suicide attacks on America will continue." The writing was in Urdu.