PESHAWAR, Feb 13: Security officials here arrested two militants, one of them Tunisian, on suspicion of their involvement in the two recent assassination attempts on President Gen Pervez Musharraf, a senior official said.

The 35-year-old Tunisian, Khalifa ben Hussain, and Adnan, a Kukikhel Afridi tribesman, said to be in his early twenties, surrendered to the authorities on Friday after initially refusing to do so, the official said. The surrender was negotiated by a Jirga of tribal elders in Nai Abadi Jamrud teshil of the Khyber tribal region, 15km west of here.

Officials of the Intelligence Bureau, who led the raid on specific information, were accompanied by a contingent of tribal force and tribal administration personnel.

The Tunisian had initially identified himself as Abdur Rehman from Morocco. Khalifa has admitted affiliation with Al Qaeda, while Adnan was a member of the banned Jaish-i-Muhammad, the official said.

The operation "Jackal Hunt", said the official, had been launched to catch those suspected of links with suicide bombers who carried out the two attacks against President Musharraf.

The two suicide attacks had left 16 people dead and over 50 wounded. Investigators later identified one of the suicide bombers Mohammad Jameel as a member of Jaish-i-Muhammad.

President Musharraf had told a Western paper he suspected the orders for his assassination had come from Al Qaeda. An official privy to the raid in Jamrud said they had recovered high quality explosives, detonators, timers, mines and grenades.

The cache includes a case carrying impact detonating devices, remote controlled devices and two hand wireless sets. "This is all high quality imported stuff," said one official.

A telephone index with international phone numbers has also been recovered and investigators say this could lead them to more suspects. Preliminary interrogation revealed what one official described as "operational and training" links between Al Qaeda and Jaish-i-Muhammad.

"They are now training individuals to perform certain acts," said the official. He said that the type of explosives and equipment recovered from the house was the same as used in the two assassination attempts on the president.

Military and civil intelligence agencies are all involved in what officials describe as the highest priority investigations into the attempts on Gen Musharraf's life, Ibrahim Shinwari adds from Jamrud.

Two Khasadars of a tribal force were wounded in an exchange of fire with suspected militants. A foreigner was later captured in a wounded condition when he set off a hand grenade, an official source told Dawn.

The source said officials from an intelligence agency accompanied by Khasadars raided the house of Mohammad Amin in Sardar Kalli in Jamrud in the afternoon. The inmates of the house, said the source, instead of giving themselves up, fired at the besieging forces.

"Intense firing continued for over two hours," said the official. "We had to call in the Frontier Corps," he added. He said one of the inmates, who appeared to be a foreigner, later appeared from the house and lobbed a hand grenade wounding the two Khasadars.

The suspected foreign militant also was hit in the ensuing gunfight and was later captured. An Afghan refugee identified as Khan Mohammad, who had given shelter to the foreign militant, was arrested from the house, said the official, adding that the raid had been conducted on information provided by two militants arrested earlier.

Officials said they were looking for four others, all believed to be foreigners. They said two brothers with known ties to the Jihadis, Rohul Amin and Mohammad Amin, had also been picked up for questioning.