— A senior Indonesian al-Qaeda operative wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings has been arrested in Pakistan, a rare high-profile capture in the war on terror that could provide valuable intelligence about the organization and possible future plots.
Umar Patek, a suspected member of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, was arrested earlier this year in Pakistan, foreign intelligence sources said Tuesday.
It’s not clear if Pakistan stumbled on Patek or his capture was the result of an intelligence tip. Details about what he was doing in Pakistan also remain murky, raising questions about whether he was there to plan an attack with al-Qaeda’s top operational leaders as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks looms over the U.S.
Patek, 40, a Javanese Arabic man, is well-known to intelligence agencies across the world. He’s believed to have served as the group’s deputy field commander in the nightclub bombings that left 202 people dead, many of them foreigners.
The U.S. was offering a $1 million reward for the arrest of the slight Patek — who’s known as the “little Arab ” — in the attack that killed seven Americans.
