Al Libbi refused to talk for hours after arrest

Al Qaida's reputed No 3 Abu Faraj Al Libbi stayed silent for hours following his capture this week before confessing his identity to interrogators, an intelligence official said yesterday.

The initial results of the interrogation have been forwarded to the United States, said the officer.

Al Libbi was nabbed on Monday after a firefight with security forces in northwestern Pakistan.

US President George W. Bush hailed the arrest as a victory that removes a key enemy.

The Libyan terror suspect, allegedly a close confidant of Osama Bin Laden, was Pakistan's most-wanted man, accused of masterminding two 2003 assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf that left 17 other people dead.

Information Minister Shaikh Rashid confirmed yesterday that Al Libbi was still in Pakistan's custody and that he was being questioned, but declined to give details.

However, an intelligence official familiar with the investigation said that Al Libbi was being questioned by Pakistani counterterrorism experts and security officials. He said US officials were not present at the interrogation, but that Pakistan shared its preliminary findings with them.

He said that Al Libbi initially refused to speak.

"He remained silent for hours, but he had to admit that he is Al Qaida. He had no other option because our people had very solid evidence to prove his identity," said the Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al Libbi, who is thought to use at least five aliases, was behind only Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri and Bin Laden himself in the terror group's hierarchy, US counterterrorism officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Libbi is believed responsible for planning attacks in the United States, the officials said.

Commandos seized Al Libbi along with another foreigner on Monday after a firefight outside the hardscrabble town of Mardan, about 50 km from the northwestern city of Peshawar, Pakistani officials said. The arrests were announced on Wednesday. The other suspect was not identified.

Witnesses said one of the two men was disguised with a burqa, the all-encompassing garment worn by women.

Villagers in the Mardan suburb of Shahdand Baba told Associated Press Television News that a small team of Pakistani security agency officers pounced as two men rode by motorbike across a dusty graveyard.

One man was captured quickly, while another, who was dressed in a burqa, managed to escape temporarily. He fled to a big home of Mardan resident Zakir Khan, and was pursued by Pakistani intelligence agents who "came in through our roof", Khan said.

"One man was hiding in the guest quarters and they found him there," Khan said. "He was a fat man with a long beard and a fair complexion. They arrested him." It was not clear if the man was Al Libbi or the other suspect.

The arrest broke a months-long drought in the dragnet for Bin Laden and his top lieutenants. The terror mastermind has evaded a manhunt, appearing periodically on videotapes to warn of more violence.