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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The man believed to be the key planner of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- and several al Qaeda attacks in the last 10 years -- was among three terrorism suspects arrested early Saturday in a house outside the Pakistani capital.
The arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is the single most important in the war on terror since September 11, said a law enforcement official close to the investigation.
Mohammed and two as-yet-unnamed men were arrested by FBI agents and Pakistani security authorities near Islamabad, the official said.
A senior U.S. official said the FBI was aware of the operation but had no official comment.
The arrest was made during a CIA-led operation, the official said. The official said the operation was "ongoing," but said it was unclear whether specific intelligence led to the arrest or whether Mohammed was captured as a part of a broader operation.
Mohammed is described as the strategist who helped coordinate finances and recruitment for the global terrorist network.
The U.S. State Department had offered up to $25 million for information leading to Mohammed's arrest.
Mohammed's al Qaeda roots run deep and wide. One senior government official characterized the breadth of Mohammed's involvement by describing him as the Forrest Gump of al Qaeda, in reference to the book and movie character who appeared in critical moments in recent U.S. history.
Mohammed was indicted in 1996 in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in a Philippines-based plot to blow up 12 U.S.-bound commercial airliners within 48 hours.
Mohammed has been linked to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, Richard Reid's foiled 2001 attempt to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, and most recently, the bombings at the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, that killed 19 last year. The synagogue bombings were the first successful al Qaeda attacks outside Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four airlines and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.
Last September, Yosri Fouda, a reporter for the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television network, said he interviewed Mohammed while making a documentary for the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Fouda said Mohammed introduced himself as the head of the al Qaeda military committee. He told Fouda, complete with details, that he attended the meeting during which the decision was made to strike at America inside America.
Mohammed was born in Kuwait either March 1, 1964 or April 14, 1965. He carries a Pakistani passport.
-- CNN Islamabad bureau chief Ash-har Quraishi, correspondents Mike Boettcher, Susan Candiotti and Maria Ressa, and producers Justine Redman and Henry Schuster contributed to this report.
The arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is the single most important in the war on terror since September 11, said a law enforcement official close to the investigation.
Mohammed and two as-yet-unnamed men were arrested by FBI agents and Pakistani security authorities near Islamabad, the official said.
A senior U.S. official said the FBI was aware of the operation but had no official comment.
The arrest was made during a CIA-led operation, the official said. The official said the operation was "ongoing," but said it was unclear whether specific intelligence led to the arrest or whether Mohammed was captured as a part of a broader operation.
Mohammed is described as the strategist who helped coordinate finances and recruitment for the global terrorist network.
The U.S. State Department had offered up to $25 million for information leading to Mohammed's arrest.
Mohammed's al Qaeda roots run deep and wide. One senior government official characterized the breadth of Mohammed's involvement by describing him as the Forrest Gump of al Qaeda, in reference to the book and movie character who appeared in critical moments in recent U.S. history.
Mohammed was indicted in 1996 in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in a Philippines-based plot to blow up 12 U.S.-bound commercial airliners within 48 hours.
Mohammed has been linked to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, Richard Reid's foiled 2001 attempt to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, and most recently, the bombings at the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, that killed 19 last year. The synagogue bombings were the first successful al Qaeda attacks outside Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four airlines and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.
Last September, Yosri Fouda, a reporter for the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television network, said he interviewed Mohammed while making a documentary for the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Fouda said Mohammed introduced himself as the head of the al Qaeda military committee. He told Fouda, complete with details, that he attended the meeting during which the decision was made to strike at America inside America.
Mohammed was born in Kuwait either March 1, 1964 or April 14, 1965. He carries a Pakistani passport.
-- CNN Islamabad bureau chief Ash-har Quraishi, correspondents Mike Boettcher, Susan Candiotti and Maria Ressa, and producers Justine Redman and Henry Schuster contributed to this report.
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