Pakistani forces capture al Qaeda suspect

QUETTA, Pakistan, Apr 28 (Reuters) Pakistani security forces have arrested an al Qaeda suspect in the southwest province of Baluchistan, an intelligence official said today.

The man was captured late Friday night in a tribal region regarded as a hotbed of support for Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the suspect as Salman Zakaria, and said he was a foreigner, though his nationality was unconfirmed.

When contacted in the capital Islamabad, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had no information about the arrest.

Many al Qaeda-linked fighters, including Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs, fled to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border, after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistani security forces launched a series of operations in Waziristan in recent years to purge the area of the militants but struck peace deals in hope of marginalising them.

Last month, pro-Taliban tribesmen, backed by Pakistani troops, began fighting foreign militants in South Waziristan and killed more than 300 foreigners.

REUTERS SM PM1435