Pakistan seizes al-Qaida suspects in hide-out

PAKISTANI counter-terrorism experts are questioning 21 suspects captured at an al-Qaida hide-out for clues about remnants of the terror network and the Taliban, an intelligence official said yesterday.

The suspects said to include Afghans were captured during the biggest ever military operation in North Waziristan, a tribal region in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, responsible for anti-terrorism operations in north-western Pakistan, yesterday said that troops had destroyed a major al-Qaida hide-out and caught "some important men".

He would not identify them.

The hide-out appeared sophisticated, he said, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan, a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets, and a tiny Chinese-made drone aircraft used for surveillance.

Hussain said officials were checking if the remote-controlled drone could have been used to check the position of security forces or carry weapons.

Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and military analyst, said he thought that was impossible, calling the drone "ridiculous".

"It's a toy. It does not have the capability to carry any load whatsoever. You can't see how it's powered. ... I'm not even sure it can fly," he said.

Yesterday, an intelligence official said "four or five important people" were among the detainees. He gave no other details.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao would only say that security agencies had captured five terrorist suspects in recent operations.

Security forces detained a local tribesman for suspected militant links in the same village where the alleged hide-out was destroyed, and seized eight grenades and 10 rockets, one intelligence official said.

This week's operation coincided with a visit by Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf to the US, where he said Pakistan was winning the war on terror.

"We are on the winning side because al-Qaida has been neutralised," Musharraf said.

"They cease to exist as a homogeneous body. We have broken their vertical and horizontal communication linkages. They are on the run."

Musharraf's government has come in for criticism from US, Afghan and UN officials over cross-border militant attacks at targets inside Afghanistan, where violence has escalated ahead of next Sunday's elections for a new legislature.