Taleban's military mastermind taken

WASHINGTON - The Taleban's top military commander has been captured in Pakistan in a joint operation by Pakistani and United States intelligence forces, the New York Times reported.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the No 2 behind Taleban founder and Osama bin Laden associate Mullah Muhammad Omar, has been in Pakistani custody for several days, the newspaper reported, quoting United States Government officials.

Baradar was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a raid by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, with CIA operatives accompanying the Pakistanis.

Pakistan was leading the interrogation of Baradar, but Americans were also involved, the paper said.

Baradar heads the Taleban's military council and was elevated in the organisation after the 2006 death of military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani.

Baradar is known to co-ordinate the movement's military operations throughout the south and southwest of Afghanistan. His area of direct responsibility stretches over Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

According to Interpol, Baradar was the deputy defence minister in the Taleban regime that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in the 2001 US-led invasion.

His arrest would be a major setback for the Taleban. He may also have information on the whereabouts of Omar and bin Laden.

Two Pakistani intelligence officers and a senior US official confirmed the report, saying Baradar was "providing intelligence".

"This operation was an enormous success," one official told US network ABC News. "It is a very big deal."

One Pakistani officer said Baradar was arrested 10 days ago.

Senior leaders in Pakistan have reportedly supported the Taleban for years behind the scenes. Pakistan's spy services, which originally set up the Afghan Taleban, have been ambivalent about US efforts to crush the group.

The New York Times quoted Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran, as saying the raid constituted a "sea change in Pakistani behaviour".

The newspaper said American officials had seen indications the Pakistani military and spy services might be trying to distance themselves from the Taleban.

US officials have been makingthe case in Pakistan that theAfghan Taleban is now alignedwith groups such as the Pakistan Taleban that threaten Pakistan's stability.

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

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.

"It is unlikely that a single individual would be the umbilical cord between the leadership council and the military commanders in the field, particularly a guerrilla force such as the Taleban."

A spokesman for the Taleban in Afghanistan claimed Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.

"We totally deny this rumour. He has not been arrested," Zabiullah Mujahid told news agency AP.

He said the report of the arrest was Western propaganda aimed at undercutting Taleban resistance to the offensive in the southern Afghan town of Marjah, an insurgent haven in Helmand province.

"The Taleban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralise the Taleban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan," he said.

The New York Times said it learned of the operation against Baradar last Friday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials who argued that publicising it would end a valuable intelligence-gathering effort by making Baradar's associates aware of his capture.

The newspaper said it decided to publish the news after White House officials acknowledged Baradar's capture was becoming widely known in the region.

Taleban fighters stepped up counterattacks against Marines and Afghan soldiers in Marjah, slowing the allied advance to a crawl.

Taleban fighters appeared to be slipping under cover of darkness into compounds already deemed free of weapons and explosives, then opening fire on the Marines from behind US lines.

Two Nato service members died from bomb strikes in Helmand, but neither was part of the Marjah offensive, military spokesman Sergeant Kevin Bell said.

Nato said five civilians were accidentally killed and two wounded by an airstrike when they were mistakenly believed to have been planting roadside bombs in Kandahar province, east of the Marjah offensive.

The airstrike happened one day after 12 people, half of them children, were killed by two US missiles that struck a house on the outskirts of Marjah.

On the third day of the main attack on Marjah, Afghan commanders spoke optimistically about progress in the town of about 80,000 people, the linchpin of the Taleban logistical and opium poppy smuggling network in the militant-influenced south.

But in Marjah, there was little sign the Taleban were broken. Instead, small, mobile teams of insurgents repeatedly attacked US and Afghan troops with rocket, rifle and rocket-propelled-grenade fire.

Insurgents moved close enough to the main road to fire repeatedly at columns of mine-clearing vehicles. Six large gunbattles were raging across the town, and helicopter gunships could not cover all the different fighting locations.

The harassment tactics and the huge number of roadside bombs, mines and booby traps planted throughout Marjah have succeeded in slowing the movement of allied forces.

After daylong skirmishes, some Marine units had barely advanced at all by sundown.

As long as the town remains unstable, Nato officials cannot move to the second phase - restoring Afghan Government control and rushing in aid and public services to win over inhabitants who have been living under Taleban rule for years.


MULLAH ABDUL GHANI BARADAR

Born: In 1968 in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.

Who: The New York Times says Baradar is the second most important Taleban member behind Mullah Muhammad Omar. He was a close associate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the September 11 attacks.

Military past: He was a former deputy defence minister in the Taleban regime. He commanded fighters in Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, after 9/11. He was briefly captured in November 2001 by Northern Alliance fighters but released.

Later role: He runs the Taleban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura. He oversees the group's operations in southern and western Afghanistan. The BBC reports that he allocates Taleban funds, appoints military commanders and designs military tactics. It said he is responsible for the Taleban tactic of planting improvised explosive devices along roadsides. The New York Times reports that Baradar last year helped issue a code of conduct for Taleban fighters.

Blows against the Taleban

* 2006: Military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani killed.

* 2007: Leadership council member Mullah Dadullah killed in Nato raid.
- Mullah Obaidullah, a defence minister, captured.

* 2009: Pakistan Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud killed in a missile strike.

* January: Pakistan Taleban leader leader Hakimullah Mehsud reportedly killed in drone attack.