- ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan
said it had arrested the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks,
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, on Saturday in a major breakthrough in the international
crackdown against Osama bin Laden's network.
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- "We have finally apprehended Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,"
Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, told Reuters.
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- "It was the work of Pakistani intelligence agencies...
It is a big achievement. He is the kingpin of al Qaeda."
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- In June 2002, U.S. investigators identified Mohammed
as the probable mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on New York
and Washington.
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- Mohammed was one of three people detained in a raid on
a house near Islamabad.
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- Officials said all three were taken by surprise and that
there was no shootout. Two of those detained were foreigners -- Mohammed
is from Kuwait -- and the other was a Pakistani.
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- Mohammed was indicted in the United States in 1996 for
his alleged role in a plot to blow up American civilian airliners over
the Pacific.
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- In Washington, FBI spokesman John Iannarelli said: "The
FBI is aware of ongoing reports and our official position is we're not
going to add any additional information at this time."
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- He said anybody arrested who was on the FBI's top 20
list would be important.
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- Mohammed is a relative of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, now serving
a life sentence for involvement in a 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade
Center that was destroyed in the September 11 attacks.
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- "This is a big success for Pakistan. He is the most
wanted man in the world. It was a very successful operation," Pakistan
Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad told CNN.
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- Pakistani security agencies have been hunting al Qaeda
members with the help of U.S. intelligence agents since the ousting of
the hardline Islamic Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan in late
2001.
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- Right-wing Islamic parties in Pakistan have strongly
opposed the involvement of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents
in past raids on al Qaeda suspects, but Pakistani officials said the FBI
was not involved in Saturday's search.
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- Hundreds of al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies
are believed to have crossed into Pakistan since U.S.-led forces began
hunting for them in Afghanistan after the end of Taliban rule.
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