ISLAMABAD – Younis al-Mauritani, a senior al-Qaeda commander believed by some experts to be the organisation’s “foreign minister”, has been captured by Pakistani security forces working with the CIA, the Pakistani army said yesterday.
Mauritani – who was detained in Quetta with two other al-Qaeda members – played a central role in the group’s plots against the West, the army said. He is the most high profile al-Qaeda figure to have been arrested in Pakistan for several years, and his detention marks another blow to the group following the deaths of Osama bin Laden in a US raid on May 2nd and the second in command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in a CIA missile strike last month. – (Guardian)
