Pakistani security forces arrested senior al-Qaeda official Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub (alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki) in Karachi on Tuesday. Muhammad Ali is believed to have worked directly with al-Qaeda operatives on the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

At least a dozen out of twenty senior al Qaeda leaders remain in hiding in Pakistan or are believed to be traveling around Pakistan someplace, said Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the powerful House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence early this month.

Since the killing of bin Laden in a compound in northern Pakistan, U.S. officials have pressured Islamabad to go on an offensive against militants. Some most wanted terrorists including Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Saif al-Adel, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Rashid Rauf, Ilyas Kashmiri are believed to be living somewhere in Pakistan.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been indicted for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Al-Zawahiri is a physician and the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which opposes the secular Egyptian Government and seeks its overthrow through violent means. EIJ led by Al-Zawahiri merged with Al Qaeda in 1998.

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