Al-Qaeda suspect co-operating

2004-07-29 23:53

Islamabad - Pakistan has arrested a Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect wanted by the United States in the 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said on Friday.

He said the suspect was co-operating and had given authorities "very valuable" information.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani - who is on the FBI's list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, with a reward of up to $25m on his head - was arrested on Sunday in the eastern city of Gujrat along with at least 15 other people, said interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat.

He said Ghailani had given authorities some useful information.

Hayyat would not speculate on whether the suspect was planning any attacks in the United States or Pakistan.

"It would be premature to say anything about this, but obviously we have certain information, some very valuable and useful leads have been acquired," he said.

'This is a big success'.

Hayyat said Ghailani apparently had been living in Pakistan for some time, but it was not clear how long, or how he entered the country.

"This is a big success," Hayyat told Pakistan's Geo television network.

"As a result of our investigation, it became clear he was a major figure wanted for the bombings."

Hayyat said Ghailani was being held at an undisclosed location in Pakistan, but indicated he might be turned over to US authorities after investigations are completed.

An intelligence official said he was being held at a facility in the eastern city of Lahore.

Ghailani, thought to be in his early 30s, was indicted on December 16 1998 in New York for his alleged role in the embassy bombings, which killed more than 200 people.

Could face death penalty

He is suspected of buying the truck used as the vehicle bomb in the attack on the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in which 12 people were killed.

He could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges, which include murder of US nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States and attack on a federal facility, resulting in death.

Ghailani also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian,".

He was also one of seven wanted al-Qaeda suspects for whom the FBI and justice department asked for help in finding in May to help avert a possible terror attack during summer in the United States.

Wife and some hildren also arrested

Pakistan had said earlier that some of the 16 suspects arrested on Sunday were from Africa, but had not said whether they were linked to al-Qaeda.

Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, who is in charge of co-ordinating Pakistan's counter-terrorism effort, said Ghailani's wife, an Uzbek woman, was also arrested, along with several of his children.

It was not clear if the suspects were planning any attacks in Pakistan or simply using the country to hide out.

"They had arrived in Gujrat recently, but we don't know where they came from or how they got into the country," Cheema said.

Large amount of foreign currency

The suspects were captured by police and intelligence agents during a raid on a house in the industrial city of Gujrat early Sunday after a 12-hour long shootout.

The authorities also recovered two AK-47 rifles, plastic chemicals, two computers, computer diskettes, and a "large amount" of foreign currency at the home to which the suspects had moved last month.

Cheema said the raid in Gujrat was carried out on information from a suspected Pakistani militant who was arrested in a separate operation in eastern Punjab province.

Pakistan, which became a key ally of the United States in its war on terror after the 9/11 attacks in America in 2001, has so far arrested more than 500 al-Qaeda suspects from different parts of the country.

They included al-Qaeda No 3 leader, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad.

Believed to be hiding

Almost all the foreign suspects, including Mohammed, were later handed over to the US officials.

Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah, two other al-Qaeda leaders, were also arrested in Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his right hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the rugged tribal frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but there has been no hard evidence on their whereabouts.

- AP