Pakistan said last night it had arrested a Yemeni believed to have been involved in the October 2000 attack on the US warship USS Colein Yemen.
He was one of six alleged members of a high-profile al-Qaeda cell arrested by the Pakistan government, who claimed the group had been planning a major attack in Pakistan.
Interior Minister Mr Faisal Saleh Hayat said the six also included a nephew of the al-Qaeda number three figure, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan in March.
A Pakistani government statement identified the USS Colesuspect as Waleed Muhammad Bin Attash alias Khalid Al-Attash, a Yemeni national.
A suicide bomber in a small boat attacked the USS Colein Aden port, killing 17 US sailors. Washington blamed the attack on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which has had many supporters in Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral home.
Pakistan said the arrests took place on Tuesday during a raid in Karachi in which 150 kilogrammes of high explosives were also seized.
It said a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives including detonators, transmitters and timer switches, intended to be used for terrorist attacks, was also recovered.