Gatwick suspect took hijackers' route

Three arrested in Germany

Security chiefs across the world made more arrests and continued to question suspects yesterday as the investigation into the plot behind the attacks on New York and Washington continued.

The latest arrests came in Britain, Germany and the west African state of Mauritania.

Detectives in Britain were still questioning a 36-year-old man arrested at Gatwick airport on Friday under the Terrorism Act. Sussex police gave few details but it is understood the detained man is Arab and arrived in the UK on a flight from somewhere in the Middle East, believed to be Dubai.

He was scheduled to have immediately boarded a plane to the US when he was arrested by Special Branch officers.

The route the man took was reported to be almost identical to that flown by 11 of the 19 hijackers behind the September 11 attacks on the US.

Police refused yesterday to say whether the man was being held in connection with the plot behind the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

A Sussex police spokesman said: "He was arrested in transit for the US. Due to the nature of this investigation we are unable to discuss this matter any further at this time."

In a separate development, Kamel Daoudi, arrested last week in Leicester, has been extradited to France where he is wanted by police.

Daoudi, 23, is alleged to be an associate of Djamel Begal, the head of one of the world's most extreme Islamist terror groups Takfir-wal-Hijra (anathema and exile).

Fresh details emerged yesterday about Zacarias Moussaoui, suspected of being the 20th hijacker. He lived in Brixton and was arrested before the September 11 attacks after trying to gain experience on a 747 flight simulator, but allegedly telling an instructor he had no need to learn how to land the plane.

German authorities said a phone call was intercepted before the attacks between Moussaoui and a suspected terrorist who shared a flat with Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers. Investigators are trying to establish whether Moussaoui was responsible for linking up members of the European terrorist cells alleged to have been part of Osama bin Laden's network.

In Germany, the federal prosecutor's office announced that two Yemenis and a Turk had been picked up on Thursday in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt on suspicion of belonging to a fundamentalist terror organisation involved in plotting attacks in Germany.

But the authorities had no evidence linking the trio to the September 11 attacks, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. The men were charged with possession of weapons and forging documents.

In Mauritania a telecommunications engineer has been arrested. Mouhamedou Ould Slahi is a relative of Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, a close associate of Bin Laden.