http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-pakistan-capture-top-taliban-commander-report-20100216-o8zw.html
US, Pakistan capture top Taliban commander: report February 17, 2010 US and Pakistani spies have captured the Taliban's top military commander, US media reported, but the militia has denied his arrest and said he was still leading the fight in Afghanistan. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested in Pakistan's sprawling port city of Karachi "several days ago" by US and Pakistani intelligence services, the New York Times and other US media said, citing unnamed US government officials. If confirmed, the arrest would be a huge blow for the Taliban, which have been fighting to bring down the Afghan government and evict Western troops since the 2001 US-led invasion removed them from power for sheltering al-Qaeda. The report emerged as 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops press on with a major assault to capture the Taliban bastion of Marjah in southern Afghanistan, key to Washington's new strategy for turning around the costly war. The New York Times billed Afghan-born Baradar as top lieutenant to the Taliban's one-eyed and elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and said he was currently being interrogated by Pakistani and US officials. But the Taliban denied Baradar's capture, and accused US officials of trying to deflect attention from "serious resistance" put up by Taliban fighters as the Marjah offensive entered a fourth day. "We strongly reject the reports of his arrest," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location on Tuesday. "He is currently in Afghanistan, where he is leading all jihadi activities... The sole goal of such baseless reporting and propaganda is to make up for the failure in Marjah." Officials from Pakistan's military and the government were not immediately available for comment on the reports. The US embassy in Islamabad and senior police in Karachi said they had no information. "We are unaware of any such operation. We do not know that any such arrest has been made," one Karachi police official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Baradar is in charge of the Taliban's military operations and leadership council, and was a close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the New York Times said. The details of Baradar's capture were unclear, but the New York Times said it was carried out by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence and US Central Intelligence Agency operatives. US television channel ABC also cited a senior official as saying Baradar was captured several days ago and calling it "a very big deal". "If he were taken off the battlefield, it would deal a major setback to the Afghan Taliban and be a personal blow to Mullah Omar, who has relied heavily on him for years," another unnamed counter-terrorism official told the station. An Interpol profile said 42-year-old Baradar was a senior Taliban military commander, subject to tough UN sanctions and gave his location as the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants seek sanctuary in the rugged and semi-autonomous tribal belt in northwest Pakistan, and Washington has been pressing Islamabad to do more to dismantle the extremist sanctuaries. Although the northwest is the focus of militant activity, analysts have warned that Islamists seek cover among Karachi's 14 million people and are using crime and kidnapping in Pakistan's richest city to fund their attacks. The top leadership of the Afghan Taliban is widely reported to be headquartered in Quetta city, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province. Baradar is said to be second-in-command of the so-called Quetta Shura -- although Pakistani officials have denied the Taliban presence in the city. Reports of Baradar's capture come as the US military reports slow progress in the ground and air offensive against opium-rich Marjah in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. The assault is the first major test of US President Barack Obama's strategy to crush the eight-year Taliban insurgency and one of the biggest since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime. AFP [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
