American arrested in Pakistan 'not al-Qaida US spokesman'

Officials who identified American detainee as being Islamic convert Adam Gadahn now say they made a mistake
Adam Gadahn
Adam Gadahn, a convert to Islam who acts as the US spokesman for al-Qaida seen here in an al-Qaida video: Pakistan officials now say the man they arrested on Saturday is not Gadahn. Photograph: AS-SAHAB/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani intelligence officials today denied that an American militant suspect arrested in Karachi was al-Qaida's US-born spokesman.

Yesterday two intelligence officers and a senior government official identified the detained man as Adam Gadahn, a 31-year-old California-born convert to Islam who has appeared on videos threatening the west, including one that emerged earlier the same day.

But a senior government official and two security agents said today the suspect was not Gadahn.

"Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect," a security official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias of Abu Yahya. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias. "Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion," the official said.

Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason since the second world war era, is one of the FBI's top 10 most wanted terrorists and has had a $1m (£660,400) reward offered for information leading to his capture.

In a video released yesterday , Gadahn praised Nidal Malik Hassan, the Muslim-American army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 soldiers at an army base in Texas in November, calling him a role model.

US embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the embassy had not been informed of any American being arrested.