The arrest of a key al-Qaeda lieutenant at the weekend has provided the US and Pakistan with a valuable source of leads to track down the militant group’s finances, senior Pakistani officials said yesterday. The arrest of Yasir al-Jaziri, a Moroccan, in Lahore has been followed by reports of his involvement in managing communications and financial operations. “With al-Jaziri comes information on how al-Qaeda moves its money and some of its leaders keep in touch with each other,” a Pakistani official said yesterday. The arrest on Saturday night came two weeks after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, al-Qaeda’s operations chief and the third-highest ranking member of the group, in Rawalpindi. There were also signs at the weekend that Pakistan is reaping a reward for its aid to the US war on terror. On Friday, the Bush administration announced that it was withdrawing democracy-related sanctions imposed on Pakistan in retaliation for the military coup of 1999 which brought General Pervez Musharraf to power. There has been intense speculation in the past week that US special forces in Afghanistan were closing in on Osama bin Laden, the Saudi leader of al-Qaeda. Full Story
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