Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said Sunday the detainees included a nephew of top Al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and several other foreigners and that they had been behind an assassination attempt on the top army commander in Karachi and other attacks.

They were arrested in separate raids in Karachi, the southern port city stung by over a month of violence, he told a press conference.

"Our security forces have arrested an eight member gang of foreign Al-Qaeda operatives for their involvement in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, including Thursday's attack on the corps commander's convoy in Karachi," the minister said.

"They have confessed to a key role in the attack. They have a direct link to Al-Qaeda."

Mohammad's nephew was identified as Musabir Urumchi. Mohammad, one of the chief planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 in a raid from the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.

The attack on the convoy of Lieutenant General Ahsan Saleem Hayat killed seven soldiers, three policemen and a passer-by. The general escaped unhurt.

The ringleader of the newly captured gang was identified as Ataullah, an Uzbek national, Hayat said.

The group had trained in Shakai in the tribal region of South Waziristan, he said, proclaiming their arrest as "a phenomenal breakthrough for us."

"The arrest is a major breakthrough for us. This is breaking the back of the Al-Qaeda-linked network in Pakistan," Hayat said.

He said eight of those arrested called themselves the Janad Allah.

"Our investigations have established that this eight-member gang was involved in most acts of terrorism in Karachi and Quetta," the capital of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, the minister said.

A series of deadly attacks in Karachi over the past few weeks left more than 60 people dead.

The Al-Qaeda training camp in Shakai was revealed by the military on Friday several hours after it launched air and ground strikes against the camp and two Al-Qaeda safe houses nearby.

Shakai lies just north of the South Waziristan capital Wana and less than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Afghan border.

A fresh offensive by Pakistani forces against Al-Qaeda-linked fighters and their hideouts was unleashed on Friday and raged through the weekend.

The military announced late Saturday that it had destroyed several hideouts and that its operation was "nearing completion" after killing at least 55 militants.

At least three civilians and 16 troops were also killed.

"Security forces are in control of the Shakai valley," a military statement declared.

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