WASHINGTON, March 10: CIA is holding two young sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, says reports in the UK and US newspapers.

Yousef al-Khalid, nine, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, seven, were taken reportedly into custody in Pakistan last September when intelligence officers raided a flat in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

It is said he fled just hours before the raid but his two sons, along with another senior Al Qaeda member, were found cowering behind a wardrobe in the apartment.

The boys had been held by the Pakistani authorities but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father, the report said.

CIA interrogators have confirmed that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father’s activities.

Their father, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, 37, is being interrogated at the Bagram US military base in Afghanistan. He is being held in solitary confinement and subjected to stress and duress-style interrogation techniques.

He has been told that his sons are being held and he is being encouraged to divulge future attacks against the West and talk about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.