Troops 'tried to kill Musharraf'

Both attacks were in Rawalpindi

President Pervez Musharraf says junior army and air force personnel were involved in assassination attempts on him last December.

General Musharraf said that several military servicemen had been arrested and would soon be tried.

The president said that those involved held "junior ranks."

General Musharraf survived two attempts on his life in December. Observers questioned how the attackers could have known his travel plans.

On both occasions he was travelling in a motorcade. In March he accused al-Qaeda of being involved.

'State power'

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told the AFP news agency that around 10 military suspects were being questioned.

"None of them is officer rank, all of them are junior people, privates or corporals," he said.

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President Musharraf made his comments in an interview with the private Pakistani channel Geo on Thursday.

He said that state power was needed to stop terrorist attacks.

"But it is important to address the social issues that cause some people to indulge in such activities," he said.

He rejected the suggestion that the involvment of junior members of the military was indicative of any growing dissent within the Pakistani armed forces towards his policies,

The president said he was satisfied with the performance of law enforcement agencies, which had tracked down and arrested all the people involved in attacks on him.

There have been at least three attempts on the president's life. The first was in April 2002 when a remote control bomb failed to explode near his motorcade in the city of Karachi.

The second and third attempts took place within 11 days of each other last December: in the first a remote control bomb detonated moments after his convoy passed, and in the second two trucks laden with explosive rammed his convoy in the city of Rawalpindi, killing 14 people.

President Musharraf has made it clear he believes that the attacks were ultimately masterminded by al-Qaeda.

In recent months, al Qaeda's second most senior figure, Ayman al-Zawahri, has issued a series of statements against President Musharraf, calling his policies and actions as anti-Islamic, and asking the Islamic groups in Pakistan to eliminate him or overthrow his regime.

President Musharraf "explained that there is a mastermind in al-Qaeda somewhere, some foreigner, and he is the mastermind who recruited local Pakistanis," his military spokesman said.

The spokesman said it was possible that those in the military alleged to have been involved in the assassination attempts may not have known who they were working for.

But he stressed that it would be incorrect to say that that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the military.

In March, President Musharraf directly accused al-Qaeda of trying to kill him.

He said that a Libyan man had a role in both attempts on his life, and one of his associates was under arrest.

Speaking to tribal elders in Peshawar, he said there were 500-600 al-Qaeda members hiding in the South Waziristan semi-autonomous area.