Taliban’s top military commander captured

THE Taliban’s top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan in a major victory against the insurgents as US troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s number two leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, two Pakistani intelligence officers and a senior US official said.

One Pakistani officer said Baradar was arrested 10 days ago with the assistance of the US and “was talking” to his interrogators.