PAKISTAN: Nearly 20 US law enforcement agents took part in raids that led to the arrest of more than 30 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban in Pakistan, police sources said yesterday.
The operation was conducted overnight on Wednesday in Faisalabad, 270 km south of Islamabad, under the supervision of the US personnel, they said.
Militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the ousted Afghan Taliban regime were among those arrested after a series of raids in which at least one suspect was killed and three wounded in a gunfight.
"The Americans were armed and masked. They did not go inside the houses but stood outside," a police source claimed. He said around 60 people were rounded up during the operation in Faisalabad's Nishatabad, Samnabad, Sidhupura and Mansoorabad areas, but most of the Pakistani detainees had been released overnight.
Sources said around 26 foreigners including Arabs and Afghans were brought to police facilities in Lahore. Their names and whereabouts have not been made public, and police have identified them only as "terrorists".
Reports in Pakistani English-language newspapers also said yesterday that US commandos and agents from the FBI were involved in the operation. The US embassy refused to comment.
The Dawn daily reported that the detainees had been moved from the Lahore police facility and taken to an unknown location late on Thursday.
It said an Internet cafe in Faisalabad was also raided and a computer was seized, adding that government officials were staying tight-lipped about the operation.
Pakistan repeatedly rejected speculation that large numbers of al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists fled there from Afghanistan after the US launched its military campaign there October 7th.
Meanwhile, the trial of four leading suspects in the kidnap and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl will begin on April 5th in Karachi's main jail, a prosecutor said yesterday.
British-born Islamic militant Mr Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and fellow accused Sheikh Adil were brought to court in the southern port city yesterday for a hearing in the judge's chambers.
Both men, along with two suspected accomplices, were charged last week with the kidnap and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, who disappeared in Karachi on January 23rd. A gruesome video later surfaced showing Pearl had been murdered.
Turkey's top advisory council of politicians and generals said yesterday that in principle it approved of Turkey taking over command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, subject to conditions.