- Reaction score
- 66
- Points
- 530
This has yet to be confirmed by Washington but if the Times prints the story it must be true. 
Washington has put the Pakistani's under intense pressure to crack down on the Taliban and this may be inresponse.The government is far quicker to move on AQ than the taliban and that may be because the Taliban is more of the creation of ISI and their close association through over the years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/world/asia/01cnd-taliban.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Top Taliban Leader Is Arrested in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: March 1, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 1 — The Taliban’s former defense minister, Mullah Obeidullah, who has remained one of the most senior leaders in the insurgent movement, was arrested in Pakistan on Monday, the day of Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit, two government officials said Thursday.
Mullah Obeidullah is the most important Taliban member to be arrested since the invasion of Afghanistan by American forces in 2001. He is one of the inner core of the Taliban leadership around the Mullah Muhammad Omar who are believed to operate from the relative safety of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, where Mullah Obeidullah was arrested.
It was not clear whether he was picked up before, during or after Mr. Cheney’s visit. But the timing may be significant since Pakistan has come in for rising criticism for not doing enough to stem the Taliban insurgents who have used Pakistan as a sanctuary.
While the detention may be a sign of new commitment by Pakistan to move against the Taliban leadership, it also seems to confirm Western and Afghan intelligence that the Taliban is indeed using Pakistan, and particularly Quetta, to organize their insurgency against American and NATO force, something Pakistani officials have strenuously denied.
There has been no official announcement of his detention, but two government officials confirmed his arrest on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to talk to the press. The NATO spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Tom Collins, said he was not aware of any arrest.
NATO forces in southern Afghanistan bore the brunt of a resurgent Taliban last year, losing 85 men since taking over command of southern Afghanistan in August in suicide bombings, ambushes and often heavy fighting. NATO commanders and diplomats have said it has become clear that the command and control of the Taliban fighters traces back to Pakistan.
Pakistan has been criticized for taking action in spurts against militants and Al Qaeda and other militant groups on its border regions, acting mainly when it comes under pressure from the United States. It often appears to speed up its operations and arrests around the time of high-level official visits.
But Pakistan has now been under much more constant American pressure over the last five months than r before, an American official in Afghanistan said recently. Democrats in Congress have raised the prospect of tying military assistance and other financial aid for Pakistan to its performance in the fight against terrorism. President Bush had also decided to send an unusually tough message to President Pervez Musharraf when Mr. Cheney made his visit to Pakistan on Monday, senior administration officials said.
Pakistani intelligence services did assist the American military in tracking another top Taliban official, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Osmani, who was killed in an American airstrike in southern Afghanistan on Dec. 19. Mr. Osmani was the main financial manager of the Taliban and was operating in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. His death was considered an important blow to the insurgents, said Colonel Collins, who was the United States military spokesman at the time.
Until now, Mullah Osmani was the most important figure in the Taliban leadership to have been killed or captured. The former Taliban foreign minister, Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, was detained by American forces in 2002 but was released in 2005 under a government reconciliation program. One of the Taliban’s top military commanders, Mullah Fazel remains in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, along with the former Taliban governor of Balkh.
Mullah Obeidullah is originally from Panjwai district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. He served as minister of defense in the Taliban government. As recently as December, he gave an interview to Reuters in which he asserted that the Taliban had gained in strength, could fight the world’s strongest armies and would step up suicide attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
A former Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was himself arrested by Pakistani police in Quetta in 2005, said Mullah Obeidullah was one of only two people who had direct access to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. He also said that Mullah Obeidullah had personally ordered military operations, including the slaying of a foreign aid official working in Kabul in March 2005.
Separately on Thursday, a bomb placed in a garbage bin on a crowded shopping street in southwestern Afghanistan exploded, killing three civilians and wounded over 54, including 10 school children, Dr. Mohammad Qasim Bayan, the director of health in Farah Province, said.
The bomb exploded just after 8 a.m. local time at a busy intersection where laborers gather looking for daily work and children pass on their way to school. A police convoy was passing at the time of the explosion and the police chief of the city of Farah, Said Aqa Saqib, said he suspected it was a remote-controlled bomb aimed at the convoy.
No police officers were killed, but three civilians died, he said. He said that the violence was spilling over from the next-door province of Helmand, where the Taliban have seized control of much of the northern districts, and that it was aggravated by the government’s campaign to eradicate the poppy crop.
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting for this article from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Washington has put the Pakistani's under intense pressure to crack down on the Taliban and this may be inresponse.The government is far quicker to move on AQ than the taliban and that may be because the Taliban is more of the creation of ISI and their close association through over the years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/world/asia/01cnd-taliban.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Top Taliban Leader Is Arrested in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: March 1, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 1 — The Taliban’s former defense minister, Mullah Obeidullah, who has remained one of the most senior leaders in the insurgent movement, was arrested in Pakistan on Monday, the day of Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit, two government officials said Thursday.
Mullah Obeidullah is the most important Taliban member to be arrested since the invasion of Afghanistan by American forces in 2001. He is one of the inner core of the Taliban leadership around the Mullah Muhammad Omar who are believed to operate from the relative safety of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, where Mullah Obeidullah was arrested.
It was not clear whether he was picked up before, during or after Mr. Cheney’s visit. But the timing may be significant since Pakistan has come in for rising criticism for not doing enough to stem the Taliban insurgents who have used Pakistan as a sanctuary.
While the detention may be a sign of new commitment by Pakistan to move against the Taliban leadership, it also seems to confirm Western and Afghan intelligence that the Taliban is indeed using Pakistan, and particularly Quetta, to organize their insurgency against American and NATO force, something Pakistani officials have strenuously denied.
There has been no official announcement of his detention, but two government officials confirmed his arrest on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to talk to the press. The NATO spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Tom Collins, said he was not aware of any arrest.
NATO forces in southern Afghanistan bore the brunt of a resurgent Taliban last year, losing 85 men since taking over command of southern Afghanistan in August in suicide bombings, ambushes and often heavy fighting. NATO commanders and diplomats have said it has become clear that the command and control of the Taliban fighters traces back to Pakistan.
Pakistan has been criticized for taking action in spurts against militants and Al Qaeda and other militant groups on its border regions, acting mainly when it comes under pressure from the United States. It often appears to speed up its operations and arrests around the time of high-level official visits.
But Pakistan has now been under much more constant American pressure over the last five months than r before, an American official in Afghanistan said recently. Democrats in Congress have raised the prospect of tying military assistance and other financial aid for Pakistan to its performance in the fight against terrorism. President Bush had also decided to send an unusually tough message to President Pervez Musharraf when Mr. Cheney made his visit to Pakistan on Monday, senior administration officials said.
Pakistani intelligence services did assist the American military in tracking another top Taliban official, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Osmani, who was killed in an American airstrike in southern Afghanistan on Dec. 19. Mr. Osmani was the main financial manager of the Taliban and was operating in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. His death was considered an important blow to the insurgents, said Colonel Collins, who was the United States military spokesman at the time.
Until now, Mullah Osmani was the most important figure in the Taliban leadership to have been killed or captured. The former Taliban foreign minister, Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, was detained by American forces in 2002 but was released in 2005 under a government reconciliation program. One of the Taliban’s top military commanders, Mullah Fazel remains in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, along with the former Taliban governor of Balkh.
Mullah Obeidullah is originally from Panjwai district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. He served as minister of defense in the Taliban government. As recently as December, he gave an interview to Reuters in which he asserted that the Taliban had gained in strength, could fight the world’s strongest armies and would step up suicide attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
A former Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was himself arrested by Pakistani police in Quetta in 2005, said Mullah Obeidullah was one of only two people who had direct access to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. He also said that Mullah Obeidullah had personally ordered military operations, including the slaying of a foreign aid official working in Kabul in March 2005.
Separately on Thursday, a bomb placed in a garbage bin on a crowded shopping street in southwestern Afghanistan exploded, killing three civilians and wounded over 54, including 10 school children, Dr. Mohammad Qasim Bayan, the director of health in Farah Province, said.
The bomb exploded just after 8 a.m. local time at a busy intersection where laborers gather looking for daily work and children pass on their way to school. A police convoy was passing at the time of the explosion and the police chief of the city of Farah, Said Aqa Saqib, said he suspected it was a remote-controlled bomb aimed at the convoy.
No police officers were killed, but three civilians died, he said. He said that the violence was spilling over from the next-door province of Helmand, where the Taliban have seized control of much of the northern districts, and that it was aggravated by the government’s campaign to eradicate the poppy crop.
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting for this article from Kabul, Afghanistan.
