Senior al-Qaida suspect arrested in Pakistan

Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a senior al-Qaida suspect wanted in two attempts to assassinate President Gen Pervez Musharraf, has been arrested in Pakistan, the government said today.

Al-Libbi, a native of Libya with a €763,000 bounty on his head, was arrested earlier this week, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

“This is a very important day for us,” Ahmed said. He would provide no details on where al-Libbi was captured, or where he is being held.

Officials said earlier today that they were questioning two foreigners on suspicion of links with al-Qaida.

Two security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspects were captured after a shoot-out Monday in Mardan, about 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province.

“They are in the custody of a Pakistani intelligence agency,” one official said. He declined to give more details, including the suspects’ nationalities.

Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two bombings against President Gen Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. The military leader escaped injury but 17 others were killed.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, has said the Libyan was the chief suspect in the bombings against him. Security officials have described al-Libbi as al-Qaida’s operational commander in Pakistan.

Al-Libbi was among six suspects identified as Pakistan’s ”Most Wanted Terrorists” in a poster campaign last year.