ISLAMABAD, September 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistan on Monday, September 16, handed alleged September 11 suspect Ramzi bin al-Shaiba over to United States custody along with four other Al-Qaeda suspects, according to a senior government official.

"Five Al-Qaeda suspects who were arrested in Karachi by our police were flown out of Pakistan this morning to an unknown destination. Ramzi is among them," the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), on condition of anonymity.

"They are not in Pakistan now." Five others who were detained would also be leaving the country soon, he said.

Earlier Monday, Pakistan said its investigators finished interrogating Al-Shaiba and that he would be extradited to the United States after legal formalities, reported AFP.

"Pakistan is obliged under international law to hand over suspects to the countries where they are wanted," Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told reporters during a visit to Karachi.

Asked to where Al-Shaiba would be extradited, the Minister said: "Be it the U.S. or Germany, whosoever approaches, we will extradite him under international law as Pakistan is obliged to."

He added, "But they [the suspects] have to be produced before a magistrate and if he is satisfied with legalities, the extradition would take place."

"Our investigators have done their job" in a reference to Al-Shaiba's interrogation, Haider added.

The German Interior Minister announced Sunday, September 15, that his country would not request the extradition of the suspect, clearing the way for him to be turned over to the United States.

Asked separately in Islamabad if Al-Shaiba would be sent to the United States, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said, "If there is a requirement as far as investigations are concerned, yes."

The arrest of Al-Shaiba after a shootout in Karachi last week is seen as the biggest coup against Al-Qaeda since the capture of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah, in Pakistan in March.

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have taken the lead in questioning Al-Shaiba and other detainees.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, September 15, that "we certainly want custody of him", and Germany, which has also indicted Al-Shaiba on terrorism charges, has indicated it will stand aside.

Several previous Al-Qaeda suspects have been flown out of Pakistan without any apparent extradition formalities.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Al-Shaiba should yield important information.

"I think he's a pretty big fish. I mean, this is perhaps within the circle of those who were responsible for 9/11," Powell told CNN.

The detainee is suspected of allegedly helping organize the September 11 attacks in the United States last year which killed more than 3,000 people.

Haider denied that a second top-level Al-Qaeda suspect is also being held, contradicting an earlier report from his ministry.

Asked about other suspects detained last week, Haider said: "None of them is significantly mentioned in the wanted list of terrorists. In fact they were the guards of Ramzi, having Yemeni nationality.

"There is no high-profile suspect in our custody except for Bin Al-Shaiba."

Pakistani police, assisted by the FBI, last Wednesday raided an apartment block in Karachi and arrested several Al-Qaeda suspects, including Al-Shaiba, after a three-hour bloody shootout in which two militants died.

The Interior Ministry said a total of 12 people were held in at least two separate raids in the Pakistani southern city last week.

Asked if Pakistan is sure the suspect is Al-Shaiba, Foreign Ministry spokesman Khan told a regular news briefing: "I would not say 100 percent [sure] but almost 85 percent."

Intelligence sources said explosives found in one apartment were similar to those used in the May 8 suicide bombing that killed 11 French naval engineers and three Pakistanis in Karachi.

"It is a high-intensity explosive and we believe it matches the explosives used to kill the Frenchmen," one source told AFP.

In an unlikely development, intelligence sources also said police found an artificial leg in one of the apartments last Wednesday.

They said the discovery confirms information that a one-legged Arabic-speaking man had been meeting Islamic militants in Karachi and urging them to mount suicide attacks against Westerners.