Key captures in al-Qaeda hunt

2005-05-04 15:38

Islamabad - Pakistan announced on Wednesday the arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a key al-Qaeda network member and a close associate of Osama bin Laden.

The capture of the Libyan national is seen here as a major success in Pakistan security forces.

Following is the chronology of important milestones in Pakistan's ongoing anti-terror campaign since it joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.

March 2002: Pakistani and FBI agents arrest Osama bin Laden's close confidant Abu Zubaydah, a key al-Qaeda operative, in the industrial city of Faisalabad in central Punjab province.

September 11 2002: Co-planner of the September 11 attacks and the so-called "20th hijacker" Ramzi bin al-Shaiba is arrested in the southern port city of Karachi.

March 1 2003: Al-Qaeda number three Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is picked up from a house in the northern garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.

His capture is hailed as the biggest coup in the war on terrorism so far.

March 15 2003: Pakistan arrests suspected Moroccan al-Qaeda financier Yassir al-Jazeeri in the eastern city of Lahore.

October 3 2003: Alleged senior al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian, is killed in a massive operation by Pakistani forces along the northwest border with Afghanistan.

Also killed in the same operation is China's most wanted "terrorist" Hasan Mahsum, an ethnic Uighur Muslim separatist from southwest Xinjiang province.

July 25 2004: Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was on the FBI's most wanted list for the 1998 bombing of US embassies in East Africa, is captured in the eastern Pakistani industrial town of Gujrat.

He is handed over to US custody in January 2005.

July 2004: Al-Qaeda computer expert Malik Naeem Noor Khan is caught at Lahore airport in eastern Pakistan.

September 2004: Amjad Farooqi, known as al-Qaeda's chief terror recruiter in Pakistan and a mastermind of two attempts to blow up President Pervez Musharraf, is gunned down in a southern Pakistani town.

May 4 2005: Pakistani authorities announce the capture of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the alleged al-Qaeda number three since the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the mastermind behind attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan says it has so far rounded up around 700 al-Qaeda suspects, most of whom have been handed over to US custody and taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to officials.

- AFP