Islamabad, July 29 (Reuters): Pakistan said today it had arrested a senior al Qaida figure wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed hundreds of people.

Interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat identified the man as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailini and said he was a Tanzanian national wanted for the synchronised bombings that killed more than 200 people in Kenya and Tanzania. “He carried head money of $25 million,” Hayat said. He added that Ghailani was one of about a dozen people arrested on Tuesday when security forces raided a suspected hideout in the city of Gujarat, 175 km southeast of Islamabad.