Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander by US in Karachi

Top Taliban commander captured in secret raid. The Taliban’s top military commander has been captured in Pakistan in a joint operation by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence forces, The New York Times reported.

AP reports:

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the No. 2 behind Taliban founder and Osama bin Laden associate Mullah Muhammad Omar, has been in Pakistan’s custody for several days…

Baradar was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a raid by Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, with CIA operatives accompanying the Pakistanis, the Times reported. Pakistan has been leading the interrogation of Baradar, but Americans were also involved, it said.

Baradar heads the Taliban’s military council and was elevated in the body after the 2006 death of military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani. Baradar is known to coordinate 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.

If confirmed, Baradar’s arrest would be a major setback for the Taliban.

He may also have information on the whereabouts of Omar and bin Laden.

Source of this detailed report is from New York Times!