Pakistan: Several explosions were heard near a mosque besieged by troops in Islamabad this morning.

The blasts came hours after the mosque's top cleric was captured trying to sneak out of the complex clad in a woman's burkha.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosions, which lit up the sky near the Red Mosque, before dawn.

President General Pervez Musharraf deployed the army yesterday to subdue Taliban-style militants holed up in the mosque.