Al-Qaida suspect wanted by US held in Pakistan

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.

Ghailani - who is on the FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a $25 million reward on his head - was arrested on Sunday in the eastern city of Gujrat along with at least 15 others, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said.

"This is a big success," Mr Hayyat told Pakistan's Geo television network. "He was arrested a few days ago in an operation by security agencies in Gujrat."

"As a result of our investigation, it became clear that he was a major figure wanted for the bombings," Hayyat said.

He said Ghailani was in Pakistani custody but indicated he might be turned over to US authorities after investigations are completed.

Ghailani is under indictment in the US for the embassy bombings, which killed more than 200 people, including 12 Americans.

He is suspected of buying the truck used as the vehicle bomb in the attack on the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges, which include murder of US nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States, and attack on a federal facility resulting in death.

Ghailani, who also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian," was also one of seven wanted al-Qaida suspects that the FBI and Justice Department asked for help in finding in May to help avert a possible terror attack over the summer in the United States.

Pakistan had said earlier that some of the 16 suspects arrested were from Africa, but had not said whether they were linked to al-Qaida.

The suspects were captured by police and intelligence agents during a raid on a house after a 12-hour shootout.

The authorities also recovered two AK-47 rifles, plastic chemicals, two computers, computer diskettes, and a "large amount" of foreign currency at the home, where the suspects had moved last month.

An intelligence official said on the condition of anonymity that the raid was carried out on information from a suspected Pakistani militant who was arrested in a separate raid in the eastern Punjab province.

Pakistan, which became a key ally of the United States in its war on terror after the September 11 2001 attacks has so far arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects from different parts of the country.

They included al-Qaida No 3 leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad. Almost all the foreign suspects, including Mohammed, were later handed over to US officials. Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah, two other al-Qaida leaders, were also arrested in Pakistan.