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Pakistan nabs top Al-Qaeda duo(More arrests)
News 24 ^ | Aug 12 2004 | NA

Posted on 08/12/2004 11:46:10 AM EDT by Dog

Islamabad - Two top al-Qaeda suspects, a Pakistani linked to attempts on President Pervez Musharraf's life and an Uzbek national, have been captured in Pakistan, said an intelligence official on Thursday.

They are the latest in a gallery of suspected top operatives of Osama bin Laden's terror network caught in the world's second most-populous Muslim nation since mid-July.

Both men were close to al-Qaeda's "top leadership", the official said, without naming bin Laden or his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed to be both hiding in mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

The Pakistani, identified only as Mohsin, was nabbed in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, said the official, who has been closely involved in the high-profile crackdown and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"He is one of the important characters in the Musharraf (attempted assassination) case," he said, referring to two bids on Musharraf's life last December.

The Uzbek man, known as Mansoor, was arrested in northwest Peshawar city, also on Monday.

Assaults on al-Qaeda hideouts

Believed to be a key al-Qaeda operative, Mansoor had been hiding in the northwest tribal belt along the Afghan border until Pakistani army assaults sent him fleeing, said the official.

"He is... one of the people active in organising and providing the Uzbek people for fighting against the army in Wana and also for acts of terrorism," he added.

Wana, the main city in the tribal district of south Waziristan, was the scene of intensive assaults by the Pakistani army earlier this year against al-Qaeda hideouts.

The latest arrests bring to 23 the number of suspected al-Qaeda operatives captured since mid-July in Pakistan's biggest crackdown on the network to date.

Also arrested this week was a Turkish man believed to be a top al-Qaeda terror planner.

Yilmaz Mehmat, alias Khalid, was arrested in eastern city of Lahore on Sunday.

Last month's captures of Tanzanian terror suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, charged by the United States in connection with the 1998 east Africa US embassy bombings, and Pakistani computer whizz Naeem Noor Khan led to the uncovering of a worldwide al-Qaeda wing plotting fresh terror strikes in Britain, the US and Pakistan.

Key financial institutions

Interrogations of the pair and examination of their e-mail records and computer files also led to the arrests of top al-Qaeda suspects in Britain, including alleged kingpin Abu Eisa al Hindi.

Attacks were planned to disrupt US November presidential elections, according to interrogators' accounts of Khan and Ghailani's revelations.

Khan's computer contained detailed surveillance records of key financial institutions in Newark, New York and Washington, triggering terror alerts in the three cities.

The trio arrested this week - Mohsin, Khalid and Mansoor - had been working closely with Khan and Ghailani, said the intelligence official.

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