#5 More from AP at 7:18 pm, dateline Islamabad
Akhund was among five Taliban suspects arrested in a raid on a home in the southwestern city of Quetta earlier this week, said the official, who requested anonymity...The New York Times, citing two unnamed Pakistani government officials, said Akhund was arrested on Monday, the day Vice President Dick Cheney visited Pakistan... The intelligence official said the raid was carried out by Pakistani security officials, acting on a tip from U.S. officials. He said that seven more Taliban suspects had been arrested, also in Quetta, later in the week.
The presence of Taliban leaders in southwestern city, which is heavily populated by Afghan migrants, is hard to substantiate. The clearest public sign, prior to Akhund's reported capture, was the arrest there in October 2005 of a Taliban spokesman, Latif Hakimi, who lived in the city with his family.
In recent months, NATO has reported a string of successes in killing or arresting Taliban commanders in Afghanistan: most significantly, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani - another top Omar lieutenant - who was killed in an airstrike in southern Helmand province, just across the border from Pakistan, in December.
In an interview with an Al-Jazeera TV journalist last week, Dadullah claimed he had deployed more than 6,000 fighters for a spring offensive. He said the fighters were hidden in tunnels and elsewhere in preparation the assault. |
Pakistani security forces have captured a high-ranking Taliban leader in the southwestern city of Quetta, a senior Pakistani security official and Taliban sources said on Thursday. The capture of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund marked the first time Pakistan had arrested a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001, and thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan. The security official, who requested anonymity, and the Taliban sources said Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership council, was arrested late on Monday, hours after a surprise visit to Pakistan by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.