Pakistan 'foils al-Qaeda attacks'

Pakistan has stepped up its campaign against al-Qaeda

Pakistani security forces have arrested several suspected al-Qaeda members who they claim were planning to attack US and government targets, officials say.

Up to a dozen suspects have been captured, and police are searching for others, ministers said.

The suspects' targets included President Pervez Musharraf's residence, the army headquarters and the US embassy in Islamabad, ministers said.

Pakistan says it has captured more than 60 suspected militants in recent weeks.

'Suicide bombers'

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says it was perhaps the biggest and the most organised plan by suspected al-Qaeda militants to eliminate the country's top civilian and military leadership.

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Suicide bombers were allegedly to be used for the planned attacks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said security forces had seized missiles, rockets, detonators, surveillance equipment and ammunition.

The attacks were to be carried out on Pakistan's Independence Day on 14 August, officials said.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the arrests were made between 11 and 15 August, although he did not say why the announcement was delayed.

"These people were planning to carry out destructive and bloody terrorist attacks," he told reporters.

There are conflicting reports as to whether an Egyptian national, believed to be the mastermind behind the alleged attacks, was among those arrested.

Mr Rashid said police were searching for "three or four" more people in connection with the alleged plot.

The arrests follow a crackdown against suspected militants in Pakistan since the arrest last month of alleged al-Qaeda computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who is believed to have given vital information about Osama Bin Laden's network.