By Jeremy Michaels and Peter Fabricius
A fourth suspected South African with alleged links to international terrorist organisations has been arrested in Mexico, the South African government says.
The 29-year-old, with a Muslim name, was arrested because Mexican authorities believed his travel documents were not in order.
This is the fourth South African - or holder of a South African passport - known to be detained abroad for suspected terror links.
'Two more were being questioned elsewhere' Two Gauteng residents were arrested in Pakistan in the past week after a shoot-out at a house between al-Qaeda operatives and security forces.
A South African woman was arrested in Texas on July 19.
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The latest arrest, on Tuesday, was disclosed at a government media conference in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Commissioner Rayman Lalla, head of police crime intelligence, said that as well as those being interrogated in Pakistan, two more were being questioned "elsewhere".
South Africa was trying to gain access to them. The government did not have "substantive details to say that they are al-Qaeda or not", he said.
He was trying to establish whether they were South African nationals or carrying false South African passports.
The Cape Argus reported in the past week that Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, 48, had been arrested on July 19 after she attempted to board a flight at McAllen International Airport in Texas near the Mexican border.
She was carrying a South African passport with several pages torn out but no visa authorising entry into the US. She reportedly told officials she had entered the US illegally from Mexico days before. She was charged with illegal entry but denied bail as a potential flight risk and is held while the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) questions her.
US Congressman Solomon Ortiz of Texas said Ahmed was on a federal terror watchlist, but federal officials have not confirmed this.
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