Senior al-Qaeda leader ‘captured’ in Pakistan
Pakistan says it has captured three al-Qaeda operatives, including “senior leader” Younis al-Mauritania, who it says took orders directly from Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan‘s military has described the capture as “another fatal blow” to al-Qaeda, despite al-Mauritania not featuring on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists or the US treasury department’s list of global terrorists.
The two other operatives were named as Abdul Ghaffar al-Shami and Messara al-Shami, who it is claimed were caught along with al-Mauritania in the suburbs of the south-western city of Quetta. At the time of writing, it was not possible to verify the report.
In a statement, the military said that Mauritania was responsible for conducting international operations, and had been ordered by Osama bin Laden to target Australian, American and European economic interests.
“He was planning to target United States economic interests including gas/oil pipelines, power generating dams and strike ships/oil tankers through explosive laden speed boats in international waters,” the statement read.
Pakistan has been under intense pressure from its ally the United States to crack down harder on al-Qaeda and other militant groups since American special forces found bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May and killed him in a secret raid.
“This operation was planned and conducted with technical assistance of US intelligence agencies with whom (Pakistan’s) Inter-Services Intelligence agency has a strong, historic intelligence relationship,” said the military statement.
“Both Pakistan and United States intelligence agencies continue to work closely together to enhance security of their respective nations.”
