Pakistani Forces Arrest Senior Al Qaida Operative

Updated: Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 12:49 PM MST
Published : Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 12:49 PM MST

(NewsCore) - Pakistani security forces have arrested a senior al Qaida operative, the military said Tuesday.

Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub -- alias Abu Sohaib al Makki -- was held in the southern port city of Karachi, officials said.

"According to preliminary investigations, al Makki is a Yemeni national and has been working directly under al Qaida leaders along Pak-Afghan borders," the military's media wing said.

"The arrest of al Makki is a major development in unraveling the al Qaida network operating in the region," it said.

The arrest follows a US covert operation in the garrison city of Abbottabad near Islamabad on May 2 that killed al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and comes after US senator John Kerry visited Pakistan on Monday to smooth a damaging row caused by the raid.

Pakistan's civilian and military leaders were left angry and embarrassed after the unilateral US assault that found and killed the al Qaida chief who had been living, possibly for years, a two-hour drive from the capital.

The raid rocked the country's powerful security establishment, with its intelligence services and military widely accused of incompetence or complicity over the presence of bin Laden in a suburban house in Abbottabad.

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