Hot pursuit of Osama as capture ‘a step closer’

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.

Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was arrested on Monday after a fierce gunbattle with Pakistani commandos on the outskirts of Mardan, north-east of Peshawar.

A US counterterrorism official said that al-Libbi, a Libyan who authorities believe masterminded two attempts to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was the most senior operational commander in al-Qaida behind only bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

"This is a very important day for us," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, adding that security agents have already gleaned a lot of information from the arrest and are confident they are on bin Laden's trail.

"This arrest gives us a lot of tips, and I can only say that our security agencies are on the right track.

This man knew many people and many hideouts."

A photo taken after al-Libbi's arrest shows a dishevelled, bearded man with sunken eyes and an apparent skin condition.

In an earlier Pakistani Most Wanted poster photo, al-Libbi looked healthy and was dressed in a Western-style suit and tie.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the US government was offering a 7.6 million bounty for information leading to al-Libbi's arrest.

The US counterterrorism official said the relationship between al-Libbi and bin Laden predates the September 11, 2001, attacks, and al-Qaida's inception in the 1990s. The official called the arrest the most significant blow to al-Qaida since former number three Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured in 2003.

"Their leadership and support network is fraying," said the official, who called al-Libbi's capture "another chapter in the degradation of their network".

The official said the Pakistanis used traditional human spying methods to capture al-Libbi.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials said that al-Libbi was one of two foreigners arrested on Monday after the Mardan firefight.

Mr Ahmed, the information minister, said the second man's identity was not known, but that authorities were investigating.

One of the intelligence officials said 11 more terror suspects three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis were arrested yesterday in a tribal region. The official would not say why the raid was launched, or whether it was linked to al-Libbi's capture.

The intelligence officials said authorities were led to al-Libbi's hideout by a tip-off that foreigners had been seen nearby.

Al-Libbi reportedly spent time in South Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border that is considered a likely hideout for bin Laden and al-Zawahri.