More arrests in crackdown on al-Qaida cells

INTELLIGENCE from newly arrested al-Qaida suspects helped Pakistan to arrest five more members of Osama bin Laden’s network and a leader of a militant group accused of an attack on a Pakistani general, officials said yesterday.

This week’s arrests are the latest in a month-longterror crackdown that has netted about 30 fugitives, including a Pakistani computer expert for al-Qaida and a Tanzanian indicted in the 1998 attacks on US embassies in East Africa.

These successes have boosted the credentials of President General Pervez Musharraf as an ally of the United States in the war on terror - a cause given added urgency at home by recent attacks on Musharraf and prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz.