Taliban commander held in Pakistan: U.S. officials

A joint raid in Pakistan ?
Either way getting a Taliban leader out of the loop is a good thing ,it may not stop or slow the Taliban down much , but it drives em crazy .
Every time a leader is captured or killed the shake up within the ranks result in a power struggle that is at the least distracting .

WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban's top military commander has been captured in Pakistan in a joint raid by Pakistani and U.S. spy agencies, a U.S. official said, but the Taliban said he was still at work.

Washington hopes the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will at least temporarily weaken the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, where U.S. Marines are leading one of NATO's biggest offensives in the southern militant stronghold of Marjah.

"I would call it significant," another U.S. official said of Mullah Baradar's capture. "But even when you get their leaders, they've shown an amazing resilience to bounce back. It's an adaptive organization."

Both U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kamran Bokhari, regional director of global intelligence group STRATFOR, said Mullah Baradar was a key deputy of Taliban leader Mullah Omar and a senior figure in the movement's leadership council.

"It's not clear though that arrest will have a major impact on the battlefield," he said. "I suspect the Taliban gave up this guy to the Pakistanis who then gave him to the Americans in exchange for some concessions on Afghanistan and India."

The Taliban denied the capture, which The New York Times said took place in the southern city of Karachi.

A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Baradar was still in Afghanistan actively organizing the group's military and political activities.

"He has not been captured. They want to spread this rumor just to divert the attention of people from their defeats in Marjah and confuse the public," Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters, referring to a U.S.-led NATO offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Police and government officials in Karachi said they knew nothing of Baradar's capture. "I am not aware of any such thing," said Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed.

Pakistan government and military spokesmen were not available for comment.

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