Extremist Lairs Raided, Pakistani Police Say

Heavily armed Americans were involved in a series of raids in Pakistan that resulted in the arrest of about 40 suspected members of Al Qaeda, Pakistani newspapers reported Friday.

One person was killed in a gun battle that broke out in Faisalabad, about 160 miles south of the capital, Islamabad, when police raided a house inhabited by suspected extremists. Four suspects and a police officer were wounded in the predawn operation.

Police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than 35 people were taken into custody in raids in Faisalabad and two other Punjab province towns, Lahore and Multan. The sources said the raids were continuing late Thursday.

One senior Pakistani police official said the raids had cracked a major Al Qaeda cell operating in the country.

The Nation and the Dawn newspapers, which both reported U.S. involvement, said the raids were part of the investigation into a March 17 grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad in which five people were killed, including a U.S. Embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter.

Concern has been growing in Pakistan about Islamic extremism following the collapse of Taliban rule in neighboring Afghanistan.

Late Thursday, about 35 uniformed and plainclothes police officers stood guard at the hospital where the wounded suspects were taken.

Hassan Raza, who lives near the scene of the Faisalabad raid, said police surrounded the house and called on those inside to surrender. Instead, the occupants began shooting, triggering a half-hour gun battle.