ISLAMABAD, February 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pakistani troops Tuesday, February 24, arrested several foreign suspects in an operation launched to track down Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in the rugged tribal terrain bordering Afghanistan, a military spokesman said.

“There are up to 20 people arrested and there are some foreigners among them,” Major General Shaukat Sultan told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“This operation is over and I would say there were no casualties,” he said, giving no more details.

Hundreds of Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships launched the operation South Waziristan, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

An intelligence official told AFP that some family members of the foreign fighters, including women and children, have also been detained.

A statement issued by the military later said troops recovered “weapons, ammunition and audio cassettes” during the search operation.

“In addition certain documents including passports have also been recovered from the houses which confirm the presence of foreigners there,” it said.

Officials said the troops shelled a house in the town of Zeralitta which intelligence reports had suggested was used as hideout by an unspecified number of foreign terrorists.

The fresh offensive came after tribal elders bowed to hand over dozens of Al-Qaeda “sympathizers”.

A Pakistani official said that about 60 percent of those linked to Al-Qaeda or working as facilitators have been handed over to the local authorities.

The official did not say how many suspects had been detained but security sources earlier said authorities were looking for some 90 people accused of offering shelter to Al-Qaeda and Taliban members in South Waziristan.

This comes as Pakistan indicated Monday, February 23, that it would hand over Osama Bin Laden to the United States if he was caught on its soil.

Kasuri said that an amnesty offered by President Pervez Musharraf, whereby foreigners surrendering in Pakistan will not be handed over to any power, would not apply to Bin Laden.

“If somebody had committed a crime against the United States that is separate issue”, he said Monday.

Kasuri said Pakistan in the past handed over some key Al-Qaeda operatives to the United States after it provided evidence against them.

Musharraf last week asked foreign fighters fleeing from Afghanistan into Pakistan's autonomous tribal belt to “disarm and surrender”, and offered assurances that they would not be handed over to any other country.

He said the deployment of troops in the region bordering Afghanistan “has nothing to do” with the British paper's report.

Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed along the porous 1,600-kilometer (1,000-mile) border for the last two years.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its so-called war against terrorism, has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

U.S. and Pakistani military officials said Monday the whereabouts of Bin Laden remained a mystery despite the Sunday Express report.

U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty, said he did not give the report much credence.

The U.S. accuses Al-Qaeda of being behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.

More recently, the U.S. administration has also accused it of supporting attacks on U.S. forces occupying Iraq.

The last known video tape from Bin Laden was aired in September 2003 by the Arabic all-news television station Al-jazeera. Three audio tapes followed, in October, December 2003 and January 2004.