Pakistan Nabs Qaeda 'No. 3'

Senior al Qaeda suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, wanted in two attempts to assassinate Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been arrested after a fierce gunbattle, the government said Wednesday.

Al-Libbi, a Libyan who authorities say is a close associate of Osama bin Laden and acted as al Qaeda's operational chief in Pakistan, was arrested earlier this week, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.

"This is a very important day for us," Ahmed said.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said al-Libbi was an "al Qaeda planner" with a senior place in the terror group's hierarchy. He said the U.S. government was offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to the man's arrest, though he does not appear to be on the FBI list of most wanted terrorists.

Neither minister would say where al-Libbi was captured or being held.

But three Pakistani intelligence officials told AP on condition of anonymity that al-Libbi was one of two foreigners arrested Monday after a firefight on the outskirts of Mardan, 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the conservative North West Frontier Province.

One of the officials said 11 more terror suspects — three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis — were arrested Wednesday in the Bajor tribal region. The official would not say whether the arrests were linked to al-Libbi's capture.

The intelligence officials said authorities were led to al-Libbi's hide-out by a tip-off that foreigners had been spotted nearby. Al-Libbi was held overnight at a Mardan military facility, then taken by helicopter to the capital, Islamabad, the officials said.

In a speech on Social Security, President Bush said the arrest "represents a critical victory in the war on terror," reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts.

A U.S. intelligence official calls al-Libbi the terror network's number-three leader, after bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

Bush also praised Pakistan for what he called "strong cooperation" in the war on terror -- and for acting on "solid intelligence" supplied by the United States.

Sherpao would not speculate on whether the arrest might help lead to the capture of bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, who have eluded a 3 1/2 year dragnet since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"We have no information" about the al Qaeda leaders, he said. "It's premature to say (whether al-Libbi's arrest will help find them), but definitely interrogation is going to take place,"

When asked whether Pakistan was close to capturing bin Laden, Ahmed said "this arrest gives us a lot of tips, and I can only say that our security agencies are on the right track."

He said Pakistani security agents have already gleaned much information from the arrest.

Al-Libbi reportedly spent time in South Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border that's considered a likely bin Laden hide-out.

He fled following military operations in the area last year. In recent weeks, authorities had privately said they felt they were zeroing in on him.

Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two bombings against Musharraf in December 2003. The president was unhurt, but 17 others died in one of the attacks.

Al-Libbi allegedly became al Qaeda's operational chief in Pakistan after the March 1, 2003 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported No. 3. Mohammed was handed over to U.S. custody, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Sherpao said it was too early to comment on whether al-Libbi might be turned over to the United States, but stressed that there were important cases pending against him in Pakistan.

Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, named the Libyan as the chief suspect in the bombings against him. He was among Pakistan's six "Most Wanted Terrorists" in a poster campaign last year.

Al-Libbi looked dapper in the poster photos, with a short beard and Western suit and tie. The other suspects were all Pakistanis, linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group believed to have al Qaeda ties.

One of the suspects, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, died in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan in September.

Farooqi was accused of plotting the bombings against Musharraf with al-Libbi, and of involvement in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Pakistan has arrested hundreds of terror suspects since Musharraf ended the country's support for the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, and waged bloody operations against al Qaeda-linked militants on the Afghan border.

It has handed the United States about 700 al Qaeda suspects, including Mohammed, Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh and al Qaeda senior operative Abu Zubaydah.