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Pakistan arrests 'important' Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative(s), conducts ops
Pakistan has arrested a Yemeni national who is an important figure in al Qaeda's new leadership and another foreign national who is one of the network's communications specialists, officials said on Wednesday.  The Yemeni, identified as Saleh Nauman, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore about 10 days ago while trying to slip out of Pakistan, an intelligence official told Reuters. "He is an International Man of Mystery important figure in al Qaeda's new leadership," said the official, who asked not to be named. "He had been here in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last eight years and wanted to sneak out of the country." The man had arrived in Lahore from Islamabad about 10 days before he was intercepted by intelligence agents in the city, another intelligence official said.
| "Drop the rocket launcher and come out witcher hands up, Saleh!" |
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters authorities had arrested another suspect, who he identified as Abdul Rehman, a communications expert for al Qaeda. He said the man was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar, not far from the Afghan border, three days ago. "He is a communications expert, but I do not know any other details," Ahmed told Reuters. Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the government's Crisis Management Cell, said investigators were trying to determine Rehman's real identity but added that he was not a senior al Qaeda figure. "No, not at all," he said when asked if he was among leading al Qaeda figures for whom the United States has offered rewards.
| "Sorry. Gotta buy yer own beer tonight!" |
Pakistan has arrested more than 70 al Qaeda suspects, some of them foreigners, in a major crackdown since the detention of Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert from the network, in July. Since March, Pakistan's army has been battling hundreds of al Qaeda-linked militants in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Officials say at least 246 militants, including 100 foreigners, and about 171 members of the security forces have been killed in the fighting. Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters, including Chechens, Uzbeks and Arabs, are believed to be hiding in the remote region.
Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-10-20 |
