Pakistan nabs 5 Al Qaeda suspects, leader of militant group

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Armed with intelligence from newly arrested Al Qaeda suspects, Pakistan has nabbed five more members of Osama bin Laden's network in the past two days as well as a leader of a militant group accused in an attack on a Pakistani general, officials said yesterday.

The arrests are the latest in a monthlong crackdown on terrorists that has netted about 30 fugitives, including a Pakistani computer specialist for Al Qaeda and a Tanzanian indicted in the deadly 1998 attacks on US embassies in East Africa.

These successes have boosted the credentials of Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, as a US ally in the war on terror -- a cause given added urgency at home by recent attacks on Musharraf and designated prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

Pakistani officials would not name the five Al Qaeda men they said were arrested in the past two days. A senior official described them as "valuable targets" but declined to disclose their identities, nationalities, or roles within Al Qaeda.

"Our forces raided some places in the past two days and captured five terrorists, including foreigners, who are valuable targets," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed confirmed the arrests but gave no details.

There was no sign that authorities are on the trail of bin Laden or his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, long thought to be hiding on the Pakistani-Afghan border, where Pakistani military operations this year have scattered hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters.

Among those thought to have fled the border area was Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the Tanzanian wanted by the United States in the East Africa bombings. He was arrested July 25 based on information provided by Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, an Al Qaeda computer specialist captured 12 days earlier.

Khan and Ghailani's computers contained photos of potential targets in the United States and Britain that prompted a terror alert in America. Information from Khan also is thought to have led to a dozen arrests in London.

Also yesterday, police in the southern port of Karachi arrested a top militant from an Al Qaeda-linked group for his alleged role in an attack that narrowly missed the city's top general June 10. Rao Khalid, alias Haris, was described as the number three leader in the Jundallah group.