THE pre-dawn airstrike aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri in a remote Pakistani village was intended as a devastating blow to al-Qaida, but it has strained ties with a key US ally in the war on terror and could provoke more anti-American fanaticism in this Islamic country, analysts said yesterday.

The pre-dawn airstrike aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri in a remote Pakistani village was intended as a devastating blow to al-Qaida but it has strained ties with a key US ally in the war on terror and could provoke more anti-Americanism in the Islamic country, analysts said today.

OSAMA BIN LADEN is hiding out with a small core of mainly Arab supporters, and the al-Qaida leader only sends messages by courier because his communications network has been destroyed, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials said yesterday.

US President George Bush is pressuring Congress to renew the Patriot Act by highlighting the actions of Ohio police who helped catch a man accused of plotting attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and a Midwest shopping centre.

Al-Qaida has lost its ability to launch co-ordinated attacks following the arrests in Pakistan of several top figures, a government minister said today.

Interrogators questioning al-Qaida’s reputed number-three, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, have been repeating the same two questions over and over again: “Where is bin Laden?” and “What were your plans?” a senior Pakistani intelligence official said today.

Al-Qaida’s reputed No. 3 Abu Farraj al-Libbi stayed silent for hours following his capture this week before confessing his identity to interrogators whose initial results have been forwarded to the US, an intelligence official said today.

SECURITY officials who arrested al-Qaida’s number three commander said yesterday that they were “on the right track” to catch Osama bin Laden himself.

SECURITY officials who arrested al-Qaida's number three commander said yesterday that they were "on the right track" to catch Osama bin Laden himself.

Authorities arrested al-Qaida’s No 3 commander and said today they were “on the right track” to catch bin Laden himself.

Zacarias Moussaoui asked for nothing in exchange for pleading guilty to a role in a terrorist conspiracy that includes the September 11, 2001, attacks, an admission that could bring the death penalty, federal officials said in Washington.

A Tanzanian al-Qaida operative on the FBI list of most wanted terrorists has been handed over to US officials and flown out of Pakistan, a security official said today.

The CIA is interrogating senior al-Qaida operatives at a secret detention centre in Jordan, an Israeli newspaper reported today, citing international intelligence sources.

PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf yesterday hailed the killing of top al-Qaida operative Amjad Hussain Farooqi as a breakthrough and predicted it would lead to more high-profile arrests.

Police may have killed a suspected top al Qaida operative today in a four-hour gun battle at a house in southern Pakistan that also led to the arrest of two other men.

A senior planner of the September 11 2001 attacks said the Hamburg al-Qaida cell was smaller than investigators believed, consisting only of himself and three of the suicide pilots, a German court was told in the first public release of statements by suspects in US custody.

A key al-Qaida captive in US custody told interrogators that a Moroccan on trial for helping the Hamburg-based September 11 suicide pilots had no knowledge of the plot, according to a summary read out in court in Hamburg today.

The re-trial of the only September 11 terror suspect ever convicted opened today with the United States under pressure to allow testimony by alleged key al-Qaida operatives in its custody.

VITAL information gained from the arrests of a senior al-Qaida terrorist and a militant computer expert highlights the progress Pakistan is making in the fight against terrorism.

PAKISTAN has arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect wanted by the United States in the dual 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said last night.

Pakistan has arrested a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect wanted by the United States on suspicion of helping in the deadly 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said in Islamabad early Friday.

A confidant of Osama bin Laden, seen on a videotape with the al-Qaida chief as he talked about the September 11 terror attacks, has surrendered to Saudi diplomats in Iran and has been flown to the Saudi capital.

SEPTEMBER 11 plot mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed originally envisioned an attack involving 10 hijacked planes, including one he would pilot and, after all male passengers were killed, land at an airport and make an anti-American speech, according to the commission investigating the attacks.

A Somali living in Ohio has been charged with plotting with other al-Qaida operatives to blow up a US shopping mall.

Pakistani authorities have arrested 10 suspected al-Qaida members, including a nephew of detained terror mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The CIA has used harsh interrogation techniques against high-level al-Qaida figures, including forcibly submerging them under water until they fear they will drown, it was reported today.

Rebels fired a rocket tonight at the headquarters of the US-led coalition after gunmen killed seven Iraqi policemen in attacks west of Baghdad.

Pakistani agents staged a pre-dawn raid at an apartment complex today and arrested seven suspected foreign members of the al-Qaida terror group who had been living there for two months.

US officials believe they have identified a young former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida’s new chief of terror operations in the Gulf.

THE US government has asked a judge to dismiss all charges against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

The US government has called for all charges against alleged September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui to be dropped as part of a legal move to stop him speaking to al Qaida prisoners.f

The US government has asked a judge to dismiss all charges against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

The US government has asked a judge to dismiss all charges against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, according to a motion released tonight.

The mastermind of the September 11 attacks has told US interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996, according to interrogation reports.

RIDUAN Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, is a 38-year-old Islamic scholar who was born in Indonesia's West Java province.

THE man accused of being al-Qaida’s operations chief in South-east Asia was planning an attack on a summit in October attended by US President Bush when he was arrested, officials said yesterday.

The man accused of being al-Qaida’s operations chief in South-east Asia was planning an attack on a summit in October attended by US President Bush when he was arrested, officials said today.

A militant who is suspected of masterminding the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh has been arrested, state radio reported.

US federal authorities say terrorism suspect Iyman Faris is co-operating in the investigation of al-Qaida. Faris pleaded guilty yesterday to terrorism charges and admitted plots against trains and the Brooklyn Bridge.

At least 20 people were killed when four explosions tore through the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca damaging a synagogue, the Belgian consulate and a Spanish restaurant, officials said.

A US judge has rejected a government compromise proposal and ruled for a second time that terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui needed to directly interview a senior al-Qaida prisoner to prepare his defence.

FBI agents interrogating captured al Qaida operatives now suspect there was a plan to hijack a fifth jet on September 11 to attack the White House, it was reported today.

Saddam Hussein has joined terror chief Osama bin Laden at the top of the list of America’s most wanted men, US officials said today.

Pakistani authorities have captured another suspected key al Qaida figure – a man US government sources say oversees communication among the terror network’s operatives.