'September 11 organiser' handed over to Americans

The suspected al-Qa'ida leader, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is accused of helping to plan the 11 September attacks, was handed over to the American authorities yesterday and flown from Pakistan to a secret location. At the same time, a sixth alleged member of an al-Qa'ida cell in upstate New York was arrested and taken to court.

Mr bin al-Shibh, who was arrested by Pakistani police and soldiers last week, was among five suspected terrorists handed over to the Americans. Their destination was unclear last night, though some reports said they would not be taken to the US and they were not in the custody of the US military. One American official said: "We have control of him. We're talking to him."

The arrests were made in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in a series of co-ordinated raids at a number of addresses on the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks. One of the raids resulted in a three-hour gun battle in which several suspected terrorists were killed.

Mr bin al-Shibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni, is believed to be a senior member of al-Qa'ida with a great deal of knowledge about how the network has regrouped since America launched its "war on terror" last year. He is thought to have played a central role in the planning of last year's attacks on New York and Washington – something apparently supported by comments made by Mr bin al-Shibh himself in a recent interview with the Arab al-Jazeera television network. It is thought that he was due to have been on one of the hijacked planes but was unable to obtain a visa to enter the US. In Hamburg, he shared a room with Mohammed Atta, the hijackers' ringleader.

In Pakistan, a government official said police were investigating whether other suspects arrested with Mr bin al-Shibh were involved in the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. If a link is established, it would be the first evidence that al-Qa'ida may have been involved in Mr Pearl's abduction and murder.

Mr bin al-Shibh has possibly been taken to Afghanistan for interrogation. Donald Rumsfeld, the American Defence Secretary, said no decision had been made on whether he might be placed before a military tribunal. "The question of whether he might be suitable ... is a matter for the President and he has not yet addressed that," he said.

Meanwhile the US authorities charged a sixth man with being part of an al-Qa'ida cell in Buffalo, New York state. Mukhtar al-Bakriwas due to appear in court in Buffalo last night after being arrested in Bahrain, where he was preparing for an arranged wedding.

A Bahrain government official said Mr Bakri voluntarily surrendered to US officials in the Gulf kingdom, home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. "The US authorities have sent him a subpoena on suspicion that he is an al-Qa'ida member. He turned himself in to the Americans and went there on his own free will," the official said.

Mr Bakri's family said yesterday they had no idea why he had been arrested. His sister, who would not give her name, said: "We don't know, we don't have any idea. We do not think he was involved."

As with the other five members of the alleged cell charged over the weekend, Mr Bakri is accused of receiving weapons training at an al-Qa'ida camp in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of last year and returning to the United States to await an order to attack American targets.

¿ The Singapore government said yesterday that it had disrupted a group linked to al-Qa'ida and Muslim rebels in the Philippines when it arrested 21 terror suspects last month. The authorities are still holding 12 Singaporeans and a Malaysian who were arrested in December under internal security laws that allow for detention without trial.