Taliban military chief caught in Pakistan

THE Taliban’s top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan, officials said today.

The arrest has been hailed as a major victory against insurgents, as US troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the number two behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, officials said.

One Pakistani officer said Baradar was arrested 10 days ago with the assistance of the United States and “was talking” to his interrogators.

Pakistan’s spy agency has been accused in the past of protecting top Afghan Taliban leaders, frustrating the US.

Moving against Baradar could signal that Islamabad increasingly views the Afghan Taliban, or at least some of its members, as fair game.

The arrest also came amid a new push by the United States and its Nato allies to negotiate with Afghan Taliban leaders as a way to end the eight-year war in Afghanistan.

Word of Baradar’s capture came as US Marine and Afghan units pressed deeper into Marjah, facing sporadic rocket and mortar fire as they moved through suspected insurgent neighbourhoods on the third day of a Nato offensive to reclaim the town.

US-based global intelligence firm Stratfor said the reported arrest was a “major development”, but cautioned it may not have a major impact on the battlefield in Afghanistan.