Pakistan arrests leading al-Qaida suspect in connection with African embassy bombings

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan has arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect wanted by the United States in the dual 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said Friday.

Ghailani - who is on the FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a reward of up to $25 million on his head - was arrested Sunday in the eastern city of Gujrat along with at least 15 others, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said.

"This is a big success," Hayyat told Pakistan's Geo television network. "He was arrested a few days ago in an operation by security agencies in Gujrat."

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

Hayyat said Ghailani was being held at an undisclosed location in Pakistan, but indicated he might be turned over to U.S. authorities after investigations are completed. An intelligence official told The Associated Press he was being held at a facility in the eastern city of Lahore.

Ghailani, thought to be in his early 30s, was indicted on Dec. 16, 1998 in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in the embassy bombings, which killed more than 200 people, including 12 Americans.

He is suspected of buying the truck used as the vehicle bomb in the attack on the U.S. 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 U.S. nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals outside the United States, and attack on a federal facility resulting in death.

Ghailani, who also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian," was also one of seven wanted al-Qaida suspects that the FBI and Justice Department asked for help in finding in May to help avert a possible terror attack over the summer in the United States.

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

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, who is in charge of coordinating Pakistan's counterterrorism effort, told AP that 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.

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, where 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 Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in America, has so far arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects from different parts of the country.

They included al-Qaida No. 3 leader, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad. Almost all the foreign suspects, including Mohammed, were later handed over to the U.S. officials.

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

Al-Qaida 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.

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