Captured Taliban Commander Said to Be 'Talking'

Arrest of Abdul Ghani Baradar signals new US-Pakistani cooperation
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 16, 2010 7:51 AM CST
Captured Taliban Commander Said to Be 'Talking'
DAGAR, PAKISTAN - JULY 16: Suspected Taliban militants are held before being interrogated by the Pakistan Military at a Military outpost, after capturing them on a security sweep of the area, on July 16, 2009 near Dagar in Buner, Pakistan. Thousands of Pakistani IDPs have started their journey to their...   (Getty Images)

The arrest of the Taliban's top military commander in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Karachi signals a major victory against the insurgents, officials said today. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is the group's No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden. He was captured in the southern Pakistani port city 10 days ago, the AP reports, and he is said to be "talking" to his interrogators. Baradar is the most senior Afghan Taliban leader arrested since the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001.


Sen. John Kerry this morning called the capture proof of a "stronger cooperative effort" between the US and Pakistan. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is in Islamabad for a meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. He told CBS' The Early Show that Pakistan's government now knows that "this fight is their fight."

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