Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s army said it arrested a senior al-Qaeda leader, Younis al-Mauritani, responsible for the militant group’s international operations, with help from U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate captured Al- Mauritani and two other al-Qaeda operatives, Abdul Ghaffar al- Shami and Messara al-Shami in the southwestern city of Quetta, the military’s press office said in an e-mailed statement. The arrest, which follows months of U.S.-Pakistani tension over counter-terrorism cooperation, is part of “a strong, historic intelligence relationship” between the agency known as ISI and U.S. intelligence agencies, the statement said.
“Al-Mauritani was tasked personally by Osama bin Laden to focus on hitting targets of economical importance in the United States of America, Europe and Australia” and envisioned attacks on “gas/oil pipelines, power-generating dams” and oil tankers or other ships, the army statement said.
The announcement comes two weeks after U.S. officials say an American missile killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who had become al-Qaeda’s deputy leader following the killing in May of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy Seals in Pakistan.
While Abd al-Rahman was a well-known figure, described by the U.S. government as a central al-Qaeda leader, al-Mauritani hasn’t been prominent in analysts’ accounts of its leadership and has not
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