Pakistan has taken into custody a group of foreign militants who are believed to have escaped from the embattled suspected hideout of Osama bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountain region.
Pakistani authorities, today (Saturday), are guarding a French national and three Arabs at a hospital in Peshawar. They are being treated for non-life-threatening wounds apparently suffered in U-S air strikes on the eastern Khost border area of Afghanistan.
Frenchman Abdur Rehman, who is in his 20's, told authorities he had joined al-Qaida six months ago. He and several other Arab fighters were taken into custody Friday, as they tried to cross the mountains into Pakistan.
The nationalities of Mr. Rehman's three companions are not immediately known.
Mr. Rehman told interrogators as many as 100 other French militants remain trapped in Afghanistan, a report French authorities have not confirmed.
Meanwhile, American Taleban fighter John Walker is in custody on a U-S warship in the Arabian Sea. U-S defense officials say he will be held there until more decisions are made about his legal status.