ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (AFP) - A Turkish man arrested in Pakistan this week is a suspected Al-Qaeda operative closely linked to two of the network`s top planners who were captured in a recent crackdown, security officials said Wednesday.
Yilmaz Mehmat, alias Khalid, was one of four Turkish men picked up in Pakistan`s second largest eastern city of Lahore on Sunday over suspicion of links to Osama bin Laden`s terror network.
The other three had initially been suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda, but after interrogations investigators concluded one of them was running a business and was not linked to Al-Qaeda, a senior interrogator said.
"The two others had arrived in Pakistan a few weeks ago and their interrogation is continuing," the interrogator speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.
The other men`s identities were not disclosed but the interrogator said Khalid had been working closely with Tanzanin Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Pakistani computer expert Naeem Noor Khan, who were both taken into custody in July.
Ghailani is a suspect in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa and Khan had been allegedly plotting terror strikes on the United States, Britain and Pakistan.
The interrogator clarified information given by a security official that two of the four Turkish men were "diehard" operatives of Osama bin Laden`s network.
He said interrogations revealed that Khalid had fought with the Taliban against US-led forces in Afghanistan and later took part in resistance to Pakistani forces during a military operation in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
Since mid-July Pakistan has arrested more than 20 Al-Qaeda suspects including Ghailani and Khan.
Information collected from Ghailani and Khan led to high security alerts in the US and Britain.
President Pervez Musharraf said last week Pakistan was winning the war on terror but warned citizens terrorists could launch retaliatory attacks as they have done in the past.
Turkey has witnessed several terrorist attacks in the past year blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked groups.
On Tuesday, two people were killed and 11 others wounded in attacks targeting tourist hotels and a gas complex in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
In November suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden trucks at two synagogues, the British consulate and the British-based HSBC bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people in attacks six days apart.
In March, two suicide bombers, also accused of being linked to Al-Qaeda, attacked a Masonic lodge in the Turkish city. One of the assailants and a second person were killed.
Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the attacks on British interests in Istanbul and the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people.
Abu Hafs al-Masri headed Al-Qaeda military operations until he was killed in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.