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A SENIOR al-Qaeda leader who took orders from Osama bin Laden and is believed to have been responsible for planning attacks on Australia, the US and Europe has been arrested in Pakistan.
Younis al-Mauritani was picked up in the suburbs of the southwestern city of Quetta along with two other high-ranking operatives for the global terror network.
He has been described as the terror group's foreign minister.
Co-operation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency led to the arrests by the paramilitary, it said, without saying when Mauritani was detained.
"In an intelligence-driven operation ...� Younis al-Mauritani, mainly responsible for planning and conduct of international operations, was nabbed," the statement said.
"Al-Mauritani was tasked personally by Osama bin Laden to focus on hitting targets of economical importance in United States of America, Europe and Australia," the army said.
"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."
Younis al-Mauritani was picked up in Quetta along with two other top al-Qaeda operatives. Picture: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
The army named the two other senior operatives as Abdul Ghaffar al-Shami and Messara al-Shami.
Mauritani does not feature on either the US's FBI list of most wanted terrorists or the US Treasury department's own list of global terrorists.
But Western intelligence officials from two separate countries confirmed Mauritani was part of al-Qaeda's top team in Pakistan, and linked to threats against Europe.
"If it's confirmed, it's a good catch," said one Western intelligence source.
Despite recent breaks in the relationship between US and Pakistan's spy networks following the US covert killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan in May, the army heralded the co-operation that led to the arrests.
"This operation was planned and conducted with technical assistance of United State Intelligence Agencies with whom Inter Services Intelligence has a strong, historic intelligence relationship," the military said.
The report comes one week after US officials claimed to have killed the al-Qaeda second-in-command near the Afghan border in Pakistan.
It also comes just days before the 10th anniversary of the 2001 September 11 attacks, a time when many in the West are assessing the progress made in the war on terror.
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