Replies

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man U.S. authorities suspect was the mastermind of Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the U.S., was one of three men arrested Saturday in Pakistan, a senior Pakistan government source told The Associated Press.

Mr. Mohammed, who is on the FBI's most wanted list, was among three people arrested in a raid on a hide-out in Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the official said.

U.S. officials regard Mr. Mohammed as a key al Qaeda lieutenant and organizer of the terror mission that sent hijacked passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, killing more than 3,000 people.

Mr. Mohammed, 37 years old, hasn't been charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, but he has been charged in a 1995 terror plot to bomb or hijack 11 U.S.-bound flights originating in Asian countries, including the Philippines.

He is one of the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects, and the U.S. government is offering up to $25 million for information leading to his capture.

Kuwaiti-born Mr. Mohammed is the uncle of convicted 1993 World Trade Center conspirator Ramzi Yousef. An older brother is a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network and another brother died in Pakistan, when a bomb he was making exploded.

A second man arrested in Saturday's raid in Rawalpindi was also of Middle Eastern origin but has not been identified. The Pakistani who was also arrested has been identified as Abdul Qadoos.

SPECIAL PAGE

For continuing coverage, see War on Terror.

See the FBI's most-wanted file on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmad said Mr. Qadoos was linked to a terrorist organization, but he refused to identify it. He said Mr. Qadoos had received training in Afghanistan.

However, Pakistan's oldest and most organized religious group, Jamaat-e-Islami, said Mr. Qadoos was one of its members and that he had no links to al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization.

Local Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Mian Mohammed Aslam and Hanif Abbasi said at a news conference Saturday in Rawalpindi that Mr. Qadoos was wrongly arrested. They said the FBI conducted the raid and carried out the arrest.

A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy said he didn't know whether the FBI was involved but said on condition of anonymity: "We do have excellent cooperation with the Pakistanis. We provide technical assistance, but they conduct their own arrests."

"The Pakistani agencies have been at work tracking these people," the spokesman said. He said Mr. Qadoos was "picked up because of his association with al Qaeda."

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said a small number of FBI agents are in Pakistan but only to provide intelligence on al Qaeda or Taliban fugitives from neighboring Afghanistan.

However, Pakistani police and intelligence officials say FBI agents have been involved in nearly every important terror arrest in Pakistan.

The Pakistani government says it has handed over more than 420 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects to U.S. custody.