Man arrested in Pakistan had pics of Heathrow

Photographs of Heathrow airport and other British sites were taken from the computers of two al-Qaida fugitives arrested in Pakistan, intelligence officials said in Lahore.

Pakistan shared the intelligence with British authorities but it was not clear if the information led to the arrests of 12 terror suspects earlier this week in Britain.

Maps, photographs and other details of possible targets in the United States and Britain were found in computers belonging to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani – a Tanzanian indicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa – and a Pakistani computer expert identified as Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.

A Lahore-based intelligence official involved in the investigation following the July 13 arrest of Khan said his computer contained photographs of Heathrow airport, as well as pictures of underpasses that run beneath several buildings in London.

He said, however, that he was unaware of any information from Khan that led directly to the arrests on Tuesday of the suspected terrorists in and around London.

Information from Khan and Ghailani had also been shared with the United Arab Emirates, the country through which several al-Qaida men are believed to have passed – including two South Africans arrested on July 25 along with Ghailani.

Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said a total of 20 terror suspects - including Pakistanis and foreigners - had been arrested in recent weeks as part of a sweep against al-Qaida.

Fourteen people were arrested along with Ghailani on July 25, and at least six other people have been taken in since then, according to security and intelligence officials.

In addition, Hayyat has said that Pakistan is holding two senior al-Qaida fugitives of African origin, one of whom has a multi-million dollar bounty on his head.

For the third straight day, Hayyat refused to name them or say where they were from or when they were arrested.

Hayyat also said that the arrests in Britain were not based on “specific information” passed on by Pakistan.