KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says it has captured a senior al-Qaida facilitator and former Osama bin Laden associate in northern Afghanistan.

In a statement Thursday, NATO says the facilitator was based in Pakistan and is a former associate of bin Laden, who was killed in a US raid in Pakistan on May 2. NATO says the man may have been with the al-Qaida leader in 2001.

NATO did not release the detainee's name and or other details except to say he was captured Wednesday during an operation in Nahri Shahi, in northern Balkh province.

NATO said the man is one of several senior al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents captured in the province since February. It said a total of 35 people associated with al-Qaida and the Taliban have been captured in Balkh during that period.