Battle of the Bilge

Good News From Pakistan

Multiple reports coming out of Pakistan that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban’s second in command and military leader, was captured on or about February 6th. Baradar was Afghanistan’s deputy defense minister when the Taliban controlled the country, as reported by CNN today. His capture, although it preceded the current offensive in Helmand province, is a welcome and potentially crucial event in the fight against the Taliban. And the announcement of his arrest comes on the same day that Marines seized the police headquarters of Marjuh, a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. The second in command to Mullah Omar and associate of Osama Bin Laden may have some very useful information to share.

A Major Catch

From MSNBC:

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No. 2 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 U.S. official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

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

Baradar is the most senior Afghan Taliban leader arrested since the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001. His arrest is seen as victory against insurgents as U.S. troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Taliban Denial

Just as the Taliban are denying that Operation Mushtarak is having any success on the ground in Afghanistan, they are denying that Baradar has been captured:

A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan told The Associated Press that Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.

“We totally deny this rumor. He has not been arrested,” Zabiullah Mujahid told the AP by telephone. He said the report was Western propaganda aimed at undercutting the Taliban fighting against an offensive in the southern Afghan town of Marjah, a Taliban haven.

“The Taliban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralize the Taliban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan,” he said.

Why Now?

The operation to seize Baradar in Karachi was a joint CIA and Pakistani effort, which may signal an increase in cooperation between the two groups, who have had a history of friction over operations on Pakistani soil. CNN is already calling it a possible turning point in the war. But some analysts are questioning the timing of the announcement, and what the effects will be on future endeavors. From Time Magazine’s Tim McGirk and Omar Waraich in Islamabad:

Some Taliban contacts suggest that Pakistan may have had no option but to cooperate this time, since the CIA may have tracked down Baradar in Karachi on its own and pressured Pakistani spy agency the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to help pick him up. A senior Pakistani official told TIME that the CIA “pinpointed the general area” and that Pakistani intelligence on the ground made the arrest in the night between Feb. 10 and 11. Baradar was arrested in the slum town of Baldia, just outside Karachi, which is teeming with migrant Afghans and Pashtuns. The Pakistani official insisted that “this shows that Washington and Islamabad’s priorities are starting to match up.” U.S. officials have complained that past efforts to tip off the ISI to the locations of Taliban commanders yielded no action. Until Baradar was seized, no significant Taliban fighter had been arrested in two years in Pakistan. “All of the major Taliban commanders are in Pakistan,” a source close to the Taliban told TIME — an allegation that Islamabad loudly and persistently denies.

Regardless of the way this capture came about, it is undoubtedly a good sign, along with the success of Operation Mushtarak in its opening stages. We send our hopes and prayers to our troops and allies in this endeavor.

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