Of those 139 were being detained at a makeshift jail at Kandahar

Of those, 139 were being detained at a makeshift jail at Kandahar airport. Two others were being held in Bagram, one in Mazar-i-Sharif and a further eighton the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.Meanwhile, the FBI is carrying out 150 separate investigations into suspected al-Qa’ida members or groups inside the US. While it was known that the hunt launched in the aftermath of 11 September for other terrorists in the US was of an unprecedented scale, yesterday’s report in The Washington Post is the first to disclose the number of different inquiries.”It runs the spectrum from one end to another,” one senior US law enforcement official said of the scale of the inquiry. “We don’t want to suggest that they are all al-Qa’ida terrorists.”.

British troops today set up the headquarters of the international peace-keeping force in Afghanistan as a deal was struck governing how they will operate. The bulk of the force could follow days later.Details of the deal are only expected to be released after all of these nations has seen the documents.. India said today that it was encouraged by Pakistan’s arrest of the leader of an Islamic militant group accused of plotting the attack on India’s Parliament, but still demanded the arrest of another 20 suspected terrorists. He said Islamabad would continue to call for diplomatic means to end the stand–off between the two South Asian nuclear rivals.”The ball is India’s court,” he said. “If the war is thrust on Pakistan, its armed forces and people would retaliate.”The arrest of Saeed comes at a pivotal time in tense relations between India and Pakistan and there were tentative signs that the two nuclear powers might be moving toward talks to ease tensions along their 1,500 shared border. India blames Pakistan’s spy agency of sponsoring suicide attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December. 14 people were killed, including five militants whom New Delhi claims were Pakistanis and India claims two Pakistan–based militant groups – Lashkar–e–Tayyaba and Jaish–e–Mohammed – orchestrated the attack.In Delhi, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said India was encouraged by Saeed’s arrest, but that it was not enough: “If the information is confirmed, it’s a step forward in the right direction.

Nine militants and one soldier were also killed near Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu–Kashmir state.Three of the eight militants killed in a raid on a hide–out near Srinagar were Pakistanis, Inspector General of Police K. Meanwhile, 22 followers of Lashkar–e–Tayyaba and Jaish–e–Mohammed were arrested in southern Pakistan overnight, said Tariq Jamil, deputy inspector general of police in Karachi.. Pakistan and India edged closer to war as Pakistani military sources claimed India had moved its eastern military command to the border. He was charged with making inflammatory speeches and inciting violence, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. India called the arrest “a step forward.”Cross-border shelling resumed, meanwhile, leaving at least two Indian soldiers dead.