More than 400 al-Qaida suspects have been arrested in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces have arrested 402 suspected al-Qaida members during months of raids on hide-outs and heightened security along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Most of the men are Arabs and were turned over to the United States, Interior Ministry officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some of those arrested are still in Pakistani custody, the officials said.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of al-Qaida and Taliban members are believed to have fled Afghanistan and sought refuge in Pakistan with the help of Pakistani extremists.

Pakistani and U.S. security forces have conducted a number of joint raids on suspected al-Qaida hide-outs throughout the country, particularly in remote provincial areas which U.S. authorities describe as staging areas for many fugitives attempting to regroup in Pakistan.

Among those arrested was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, Abu Zubaydah, possibly the third-ranking figure in al-Qaida. Zubaydah was shot and wounded on March 28 during a joint U.S.-Pakistani raid on an al-Qaida hide-out in the industrial city of Faisalabad. He is in U.S. custody.

Border patrol

But U.S. officials have expressed concern that al-Qaida and Taliban remnants from Afghanistan have been able to cross into Pakistan, despite the deployment of thousands of Pakistani troops in the semiautonomous border tribal areas.

On Tuesday, Pakistan's interior minister insisted the arrests had been carried out exclusively by Pakistani authorities, dismissing suggestions that U.S. forces had played a critical role.

"Soldiers of no country, including America, are taking part in ongoing operations against terrorists," Moinuddin Haider said.