Pakistan's capture of a Libyan accused of being al-Qaeda's third in command has raised hopes that information extracted from him may lead to Osama bin Laden, security officials said yesterday.
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the suspected mastermind of two attempts to kill Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, has a key role in the terror network, according to a copy of a classified US CIA list.
The CIA list of most-wanted men dating from last year put al-Libbi at number three after Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri, calling him the "newly reported chief of external operations for al-Qaeda."
It says he has a US$5 million bounty on his head and goes on to describe him as "senior al-Qaeda operations commander and personal assistant of bin Laden."
Pakistan announced on Wednesday that it had captured the Libyan national two days earlier, after a brief shootout with security agents who apprehended him as he rode a motorbike in the remote northwestern town of Mardan. Al-Libbi was also Pakistan's most wanted man and could face the death penalty for the Musharraf assassination attempts in December 2003.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said Al-Libbi had been airlifted by helicopter to Islamabad after his capture and was now being interrogated by Pakistani security forces at an undisclosed location.
Security officials said they believe al-Libbi has been in contact with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, whose whereabouts remain a mystery three years after a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban, their hosts in neighboring Afghanistan.
US and Pakistani officials have said they believe the pair are hiding in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but there has been no sign of either.
"Al-Libbi is one of bin Laden's closest confidants and he should be able to provide new leads about both Osama and Ayman Al-Zawahiri," a senior security official involved in anti-al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan said it had arrested nine more al-Qaeda suspects including a woman on Wednesday in the northwestern Bajaur tribal belt near the Afghan border. Officials said the operation was not linked to Al-Libbi's capture.
Seven Pakistani tribesmen and an Uzbek couple were picked up from two houses, an interior ministry official said.
Police tightened security around the US consulate in Pakistan's largest city Karachi and other sensitive installations following the arrest.
"We have declared high alert to prevent any retaliation," police chief Tariq Jamil said.
US President George W. Bush welcomed al-Libbi's capture, calling it "a critical victory" in the global war on terrorism declared by Washington after Osama bin Laden's network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the arrest underlined Pakistan's resolve in the battle against terrorism. Pakistan had posted a reward of 20 million rupees (US$333,000) for al-Libbi's arrest.
Officials said al-Libbi took over al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan after the arrest in March 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the key planner of 9-11 attacks and the network's former third in command.
The official said, "Through Khalid Sheikh Mohammed we learned that bin Laden was alive, and we hope al-Libbi should take us further."
Military leader Musharraf has previously named al-Libbi as the ringleader in the attempts to kill him. In the first, militants blew up a road bridge as he drove past and in the second while the second happened on Christmas Day, suicide bombers hit his motorcade, killing more than a dozen people.
The capture of al-Libbi is the latest in a string of key arrests by Pakistan since Musharraf allied himself with Washington after Sept. 11, 2001.
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