Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 12, 2002
Pakistani Police Raid Suspected Al-Qaeda Hideout
Police commandos fought a pitched battle with al-Qaeda suspects holed up in an apartment Wednesday, with combat spilling out onto adjoining rooftops. Two suspects were killed and five captured in the fighting, as Pakistan stepped up pressure on the remnants of the terrorist movement a year after it made its mark on the world.
Police commandos fought a pitched battle with al-Qaeda suspects holed up in an apartment Wednesday, with combat spilling out onto adjoining rooftops. Two suspects were killed and five captured in the fighting, as Pakistan stepped up pressure on the remnants of the terrorist movement a year after it made its mark on the world.
Six officers, including two intelligence agents, were wounded when police stormed the top-floor apartment and the rooftop where the gunmen held out against hundreds of troops in the street and on the roofs of nearby apartment blocks. Two of the wounded were reported in critical condition.
Police said one of the dead militants and one of those arrested were Arabs, but their nationalities were not known. The rest were Afghans, he said.
The federal Interior Ministry in Islamabad confirmed all the gunmen were foreigners but released no further information. A neighbor said the men moved into the apartment in the upscale neighborhood about three months ago.
Police seized a laptop computer and "literature," plus an arsenal of assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols and hand grenades, said an intelligence agent on the scene. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
Police retracted an initial report that a 4-year-old girl was killed in cross fire.
Pakistani authorities said this week they have captured 402 al-Qaeda activists since the start of the war on terrorism. Most have been turned over to U.S. authorities for questioning.