Suicide Blast Kills 6 in Pakistan

"Not many al Qaeda suspects have been arrested . . . with such a trove of current information on the present-day al Qaeda," said a senior Pakistani intelligence official. "The Americans are absolutely thrilled."

One intelligence official reported seizing a laptop computer when Ghailani was captured, saying that the suspected terrorist was "computer savvy" and "knew how best to use the technology to keep the network energized." U.S. specialists are deciphering information on the computer, which was taken from Ghailani's rented house in a well-to-do neighborhood of Gujrat, an industrial town about 100 miles southeast of Islamabad.

The officials described such seizures of al Qaeda operatives and their equipment as a cumulative process.

"Since 9/11, each significant arrest has led to another," said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat. "We have also taken out the al Qaeda's local support network. There is every evidence that in our own national security interest we are tightening the noose around al Qaeda in Pakistan, hence there is a wild reaction."

Pakistani security officials have said that a recent surge in terrorist activities in the country is the result of an intensive military operation launched last month against suspected al Qaeda sanctuaries in the tribal belt of South Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan.

At least 100 Pakistani troops have been killed during the operation in guerrilla attacks and in direct combat with al Qaeda elements and their sympathizers in the heavily armed tribal areas.

Pakistani intelligence officials also said that some al Qaeda members had slipped from Waziristan into cities, where they were looking for targets.

The bombing on Friday was one of a series of such attacks, security officials said. A senior intelligence official was killed and three others were wounded in two bomb attacks in the northwestern city of Kohat on Wednesday, both blamed on al Qaeda, officials said.

Last month, in one of the worst terrorist attacks against military targets in Pakistan, a motorcade including a top army general was ambushed, killing 10 soldiers in downtown Karachi. Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat was uninjured, but his driver was killed.

The subsequent arrest of nine members of the 20-member militant Islamic group Jundul Islam -- Islamic Army -- yielded information that key members of the organization had been trained by al Qaeda instructors in South Waziristan, officials said.