Dutch question Kurd 'linked to al-Qa'ida'

The leader of an extremist Kurdish group with suspected links to al-Qa'ida was being questioned by Dutch police last night after being arrested at Schiphol airport.

Mullah Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, the leader of Ansar al-Islam, was arrested on Thursday in Amsterdam while flying from Tehran to Norway.

Although not well known in the West, Washington has been monitoring closely the group's activities. American officials believe that Ansar al-Islam fighters trained with al-Qa'ida and helped to hide its members who were fleeing Afghanistan.

The group is believed to operate out of several Iraqi villages near the Iranian border and has allegedly experimented with chemical or biological weapons. Talks were under way yesterday to decide whether Mr Ahmad, who is also known as Mullah Krekar, should be extradited, possibly to the United States.

Meanwhile, in Florida, three men of Middle Eastern appearance were detained yesterday after a woman said she overheard them discussing a terror strike.

After being questioned for 17 hours, police said the men appeared to have been joking. The Collier County Sheriff, Don Hunter, said the men had been overheard saying they would make Americans cry on 13 September just like they cried on 11 September.

* Ramzi Binalshibh, who is wanted by Germany for allegedly planning and helping to carry out the 11 September attacks, has been captured in Pakistan, American officials said last night. He was refused a US visa at least four times before the attacks last year.

His capture came days after a journalist with Al-Jazeera television said he had interviewed Mr Binalshibh in Pakistan. The Yemeni suspect has reportedly confirmed that Osama bin Laden was personally involved in planning the attacks.