U.S. and Pakistani officials said they were questioning key al Qaeda suspect Ramzi Binalshibh Saturday after arresting him on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

　　Pakistan’s government said a second high-level al Qaeda suspect was also being held after a series of raids in Pakistan’s sprawling port city of Karachi last week which netted a total of 12 foreign suspects and left two dead.

　　Binalshibh, who is wanted by Germany for his alleged role in planning and carrying out the hijacked plane attacks on the United States, is one of the most important al Qaeda members to be taken into custody over the past year.

　　A U.S. official said Binalshibh was captured by Pakistani authorities with help from the FBI and CIA. U.S. officials have said the Yemeni national, who was refused a visa into the United States at least four times before September 11, 2001, wanted to join the 19 hijackers involved in last year’s attack.

　　President Bush hailed the capture and vowed to hunt down other suspects still at large.

　　“Thanks to the efforts of our folks and people in Pakistan, we captured one of the planners and organizers of the September 11 attack that murdered thousands of people...” Bush said.

　　“One by one, we’re hunting the killers down. We are relentless, we are strong, and we’re not going to stop,” he told reporters.

　　In Pakistan, officials said Binalshibh and four other suspected al Qaeda militants had been arrested on Wednesday after a three-hour gun battle, and said they were being questioned at a secure location inside Pakistan.

　　Pakistan was ready to hand the suspects over to U.S. authorities if there was evidence they were involved in terrorist activities. But the German government said it also wanted to try Binalshibh.

　　“We in Germany have issued an international arrest warrant that we want to enforce. If there are competing interests we must come to an agreement with other countries,” German Interior Minister Otto Schily told German ARD television in Copenhagen.

　　Binalshibh was one of the roommates of Mohamed Atta -- the suspected ringleader of the September 11 hijackers -- in Hamburg, Germany, and officials say he was very prominent in the Hamburg cell. Binalshibh was not as high in Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda as Abu Zubaydah, captured in Pakistan in March.

　　(SD-Agencies)