1:47 pm
Jack
Sept. 6 (Gossipad) -- Pakistan said it arrested
al-Qaeda’s top leader for international operations with American help,
sounding a conciliatory tone on bilateral ties strained by the U.S.
killing of Osama bin Laden in May.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence
Directorate captured Younis Al-Mauritani and al-Qaeda operatives Abdul
Ghaffar al- Shami and Messara al-Shami in the city of Quetta, the
military’s press office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The
arrests are part of “a strong, historic intelligence relationship”
between both countries, the statement said.
The announcement came two weeks after U.S.
officials said an American missile killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who they
said became al-Qaeda’s deputy leader following the killing of bin Laden
by Navy Seals in Pakistan. The unilateral raid exacerbated tensions, as
Pakistan expelled more than 100 American military personnel and the
U.S. withheld $800 million in military aid.
The army described Al-Mauritani as “al-Qaeda
commander for external operations” who planned strikes at economic
targets in the U.S. Europe and Australia and had considered attacks on
oil pipelines, tankers and dams. He is more likely a member of a
committee charged with conducting such operations, according to Bill
Roggio, director of the U.S. monitoring group Long War Journal, citing
American intelligence officials.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest praised the
arrests, calling them “an example of the longstanding partnership
between the U.S. and Pakistan in fighting terrorism, which has taken
many terrorists off the battlefield over the past decade.”
Rewards
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice
program offered $1 million for information on Abd al-Rahman’s
whereabouts. It does not name al-Mauritani on its list of the 40 top
militants for whom rewards are offered.
Among few earlier public references to
al-Mauritani, the German news magazine Der Spiegel last year cited
sources it did not name as saying he had met German Islamic militants in
Pakistan to discuss attacks on economic targets in Europe.
The statement stressed cooperation between U.S.
and Pakistan intelligence agencies, saying the “continue to work
together to enhance security of their respective nations.”
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, in July called ties between the two countries “at
its low point.” He has been among U.S. officials who have spoken
publicly about frustrations with the ISI, saying on April 20 that it
still “has a longstanding relationship” with a Taliban faction led by
Jalaluddin Haqqani.
A recent Defense Department report called Haqqani “the most significant threat” to U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan.
