PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 19 (AFP) - Pakistani police Thursday arrested an Algerian Al-Qaeda suspect after a shootout with two men on the outskirts of this northwestern provincial capital, intelligence officials said.
Two men riding in a car fired at police when they were signalled to stop in Hayatabad, an upscale posh residential neighbourhood on the city outskirts.
"In the ensuing exchange of fire one of the two men was injured and captured while the other managed to run away. The arrested man is an Arab and apparently linked to Al-Qaeda," an intelligence official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A senior security official later identified the captured man as an Algerian named Abu Fouzi.
Police recovered a few hand grenades, some documents and an assault rifle from the car, the official added.
Pakistani security agencies have been making arrests almost daily since they stepped up their crackdown on Al-Qaeda fugitives, blamed for a wave of terrorist attacks on Pakistani leaders since December.
Among the prized arrests are Tanzanian national Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicted by the US for his role in the 1998 twin bombing of US embassies in east Africa and Al-Qaeda's Pakistani computer expert Naeem Noor Khan.
The government has published photos of six "most wanted" terrorists in newspaper front page advertisements offering hefty cash rewards for information leading to their arrest.
The list includes a top Libyan Al-Qaeda suspect, Abu Faraj Farj Al Libbi.
Officials have said Al-Qaeda operatives and local militants trained by the group carried out two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf last December and an attempt to blow up the army commander of Karachi in June.
A suicide bomb attack on prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz on July 30 was carried out by a local Islamic militant, intelligence officials have said.