ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces have captured a Libyan lieutenant of Osama bin Laden suspected of masterminding two attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, officials here announced Wednesday.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed said Abu Faraj Farj was the most significant Al Qaeda figure arrested in Pakistan since alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured in 2003.
Some Pakistani and U.S. security officials have said they think that Farj is Al Qaeda's operations chief, a position once held by Mohammed. If true, he may have valuable information on pending Al Qaeda plots.
Pakistani intelligence sources have also said they believe the Libyan has been in direct contact with Bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman Zawahiri. Ahmed predicted that Farj's arrest "would lead to new successes in the war against terrorism," but he was reluctant to speculate whether the Libyan could lead authorities to Bin Laden.
President Bush praised Pakistan for the arrest, saying it was a "critical victory in the war on terror" that removed "a dangerous enemy who was a direct threat to America."
Farj was being interrogated Wednesday night in Islamabad, the capital, Pakistani intelligence sources said.
Officials gave conflicting accounts of where Farj, Pakistan's most-wanted fugitive, was arrested. Ahmed and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said he was picked up in South Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border. But Pakistani intelligence sources said the Libyan was captured Monday near Mardan, in North-West Frontier Province.
Security officials had been tracking Farj for months, but he escaped arrest at least six times when his hide-outs in South Waziristan were raided, sources said.
This time he was tracked through a satellite phone call, intelligence officials said. Pakistani commandos and intelligence agents surrounded him in the small town of Shandan, adjacent to Mardan, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. There was reportedly a gun battle before he surrendered.
Farj's capture follows the arrest of four of his associates in January in the city of Lahore, authorities said.
"This was a very complex operation. There was an awful lot of hard detective work that was done to get us where we are today," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official, who requested that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the U.S.-Pakistani anti-terrorism effort. He said a "human source" ultimately led to Farj's capture.
