Kuwait has arrested a senior al Qaeda member who allegedly identified those behind last month's attack against a French supertanker off Yemen, a Kuwaiti newspaper said. It was not clear if Mohsen, who was born in 1981, was the high-ranking unidentified al Qaeda leader who U.S. government sources said Friday had been captured in the past week or so and was in U.S. custody.

Al-Qabas daily said in an advance copy of its Sunday edition sent to Reuters Saturday that the Kuwaiti suspect, identified only as Mohsen F., headed Qaeda operations in the Arabian peninsula and was in touch with the militant network's operatives in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Kuwaiti officials were not immediately available to comment.

A security source told al-Qabas that Kuwaiti authorities had passed information obtained from Mohsen to the United States and France one week ago. This included the names of two men who allegedly planned the October 6 attack on the tanker Limburg, which gutted the ship and killed one crewman.

The paper did not say when Mohsen was arrested.

Washington blames Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for last year's September 11 hijacked jet attacks on U.S. cities.

The security source told al-Qabas that one of the men named by Mohsen was also allegedly involved in the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in Aden harbor that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

"Mohsen also confessed that he had prepared with his group a plan to carry out a suicide attack on a hotel in (the Yemeni capital) Sanaa with American guests," the source said.

Mohsen allegedly said he had received a call four months ago about "one land operation and one sea operation," the source said, and that DLRS. 27,000 had been transferred from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia and then Yemen.

Al-Qabas said Mohsen was arrested at his house after close monitoring of 10 mobile telephone numbers he had been using.

Yemen is the ancestral home of Saudi-born fugitive bin Laden. Six al Qaeda members were killed in Yemen in a rocket attack by a CIA drone plane earlier this month.

U.S. government sources have declined to name the operative captured recently but said he was in the top dozen and ranked him similar to Abu Zubaydah who is one of the most senior members of al Qaeda in custody.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a bulletin dated Thursday that al Qaeda may be plotting "spectacular" attacks inside the United States.

PHOTO CAPTION

President George W. Bush has given broad authority to 'a variety of people' in his administration to launch attacks like the missile strike that killed six suspected al Qaeda operatives in Yemen last week. Washington meanwhile says it has detained a high-ranking unidentified al Qaeda leader who U.S. government sources said Friday, Nov 15, 2002. Bush is seen in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 8. Photo by Win Mcnamee/Reuters
- Nov 10 12:02 PM ET