They’re falling fast these days. Let’s hope it keeps up. From AP, :
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A senior Pakistani al-Qaida operative who used to run one of the terror group’s training camps in Afghanistan has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates and handed over to Pakistani officials, the information minister said Sunday.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar is in Pakistani custody, the latest in a string of major breakthroughs against the al-Qaida network, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.
Akhtar ran an al-Qaida training camp in Rishkhor, Afghanistan, where terrorists learned kidnapping and assassination techniques, as well as traditional combat skills used by Taliban fighters in their war to win control of the country before they were ousted in late 2001.
“Yes we can confirm that we have Qari Saifullah,” Ahmed said.
Some 3,500 men passed through Rishkhor, a sprawling complex of shattered barracks and dusty training fields about 10 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are both believed to have visited the camp.
The camp was deserted in the hours ahead of the U.S. bombing campaign in October 2001, and Akhtar got away. It is now used as a base by Afghan soldiers.