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From the BBC:
Last Updated: Saturday, 1 March, 2003, 22:01 GMT
Top al-Qaeda suspect captured
The US accuses him of being behind 11 September 2001 attacks
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the top aides in Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, has been captured in Pakistan.
Sheikh Mohammed was arrested with two other unidentified men in what the White House called a "successful joint operation" between the US and Pakistani authorities, in a pre-dawn raid in the city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.
He had long been on the FBI's most wanted list - and the US had recently increased the reward for his capture to $25m.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer in a statement commended the detentions and said that the US authorities had been involved, although he did not specify the precise nature of their role.
Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, told Reuters news agency also commended the detentions, describing it as a "a big achievement".
"He is the kingpin of al-Qaeda," he said.
US indictment
US authorities believe the 37-year-old Kuwaiti is a leading figure in the al-Qaeda network and helped to plan the 11 September attacks.
He has been indicted in America for plotting to blow up American commercial airliners in the Philippines in the mid-1990s.
BBC correspondent Nick Childs says that US officials were delighted at such a significant breakthrough, coming at a crucial time when a war with Iraq looms closer and fears have been growing in the US over further terror attacks.
US intelligence agents have been hunting remnants of Afghanistan's former Taleban regime and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network since the US-led military action in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Hundreds al-Qaeda militants and former Taleban ministers are thought to have fled into Pakistan since US-led forces launched the strikes following the 11 September attacks.
Other key arrests
Dozens have subsequently been arrested, including senior al-Qaeda leader Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni national.
The whereabouts of Bin Laden remain unknown
He is alleged to have been one of the main planners of the attacks in Washington and New York who was handed over to the US.
Another top al-Qaeda suspect, Abu Zabaydah, thought to have been Bin Laden's field commander, was captured in March 2002.
He was subsequently handed over to the US and is said to have been co-operating with investigators.
He is also thought to have been the source behind many of America's terror warnings since the 11 September attacks.
Pakistan's Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, did not say if Sheikh Mohammed had been handed over to US authorities.
However reports say he may be turned over to US authorities and interrogated in an undisclosed foreign country.
Bin Laden speculation
Right-wingers in the Pakistani Government have strongly opposed any US intervention in raids or searches for al-Qaeda suspects.
BBC Islamabad correspondent Paul Anderson says that Sheikh Mohammed's capture strikes at the heart of the al-Qaeda network.
And, he says, it is bound to raise speculation as to the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, whom some experts believe may be hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.
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