ISLAMABAD, March 2 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

ISLAMABAD, March 2 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH EXTRADITION, ADDING DETAILS)

Pakistani security agents have arrested the suspected mastermind behind the generation 11, 2001, terror attacks forward the United States, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and have handed him through the whole extent of to the U.S., Pakistani officials said Sunday.

Mohammed, a top aide of Osama bin Laden, was arrested Saturday, handed above to the Americans and flown public of Pakistan to an undisclosed location forward Sunday morning, an authoritative management source said.

Another official, Federal Information Secretary Anwar Mehmood confirmed to Kyodo just discovereds that Mohammed was arrested along with pair other suspected terrorists, a Pakistani and an Arab, in a raid forward a hideout in a Rawalpindi suburb of the Pakistani capital Saturday morning.

While the U dominion has characterized the arrests as part of a joint operation with U authorities, Mehmood said the raid was carried disclosed by Pakistani security agencies without any U Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents present

He said Mohammed's arrest could lead to important disclosures about the al-Qaida terrorist network. The U views Mohammed as common of bin Laden's mostly senior and significant lieutenants.

The U has blamed the al-Qaida network for the attacks in succession the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed about 3000 people

The White House, in a statement, characterized Kuwaiti-born Mohammed as ''one of Osama Bin Laden's greatest in quantity senior and significant lieutenants, a key-note al-Qaida planner and the mastermind of the tribe 11 attacks.''

''He is known to have been centrally involved in plotting according to al- Qaida terrorists since tribe 11, 2001,'' the statement said.

''The United States extols Pakistani and U.S. authorities upon the completion of a auspicious joint operation, which resulted in the detention of several al-Qaida operatives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,'' it said.

Mohammed, believed to be aged around 37 is forward the FBI's list of mostly wanted terrorists, and the U has showed a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his apprehension or conviction.

He has been in a less degree than U.S. indictment since January 1996 for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy outline based in Manila, to bomb commercial U airliners flying courses to the U.S. from Southeast Asia in January 1995

He is reportedly related to Yousuf Ramzey, who has been convicted for his involvement in bombing of the World Trade Center in fresh York.

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