Pakistan announces arrest of senior al Qaeda militant

A senior al Qaeda operative has been arrested by security agencies in Karachi, the Pakistani military said in a statement Tuesday.

The military identified the man as Muhammad Ali Qasim, also known as Abu Sohaib al Makki, a Yemeni national who has been working directly under al Qaeda leaders along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

The arrest is a major development in unraveling the al Qaeda network operating in the region, and comes more than two weeks after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a military operation in Pakistan.