ISLAMABAD, May 1: Investigators on Thursday interrogated six Al Qaeda suspects including a Yemeni linked to the deadly USS Cole bombing, two days after they were captured in Pakistan’s latest big heist in the war on terrorism.

“They are still with us. We are investigating them right now,” Brigadier Javed Cheema, head of the interior ministry’s National Crises Management Unit, said.

The snaring of Yemeni Waleed Mohammad bin Attash won the praise of US President George W. Bush who described it as “a major, significant find”.

Cheema said bin Attash was suspected of involvement in the October 2000 suicide bomb attack on the US destroyer, in which 17 American sailors were killed while it was docked in Yemen’s Aden harbour.

Attash and the five other men were nabbed on Tuesday in Karachi.

Pakistan’s paramilitary Rangers forces caught the suspected terrorists after they were tipped off that an arms consignment was arriving in Karachi, a senior Karachi-based security officer said.

“They mounted a raid and arrested three people who gave them some leads, which led to the arrest of some more people including the Yemeni,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

There was no resistance during the two raids, he added.

Among the other five suspects was a foreigner of Arab origin, while the rest appeared to be Pakistani nationals, he said.

A massive amount of explosives and weapons, including grenades, kalashnikovs, detonators and a truckload of explosive sulphur were found in their possession.

Witnesses said they believed one of the raids was carried out in a warehouse in a slum area in Karachi’s industrial north-east districts.

“Scores of officials in civilian clothes and paramilitary Rangers cordoned off this locality on Tuesday and broke into the warehouse,” Mohammad Amin told reporters outside the warehouse.

“When the operation was almost concluded we saw them coming out with gunny-bags filled with stuff on their shoulders.”

Mr Cheema said US investigators would join the interrogations later. “The US teams have not joined interrogations yet. Later they might,” he said.—AFP