 QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces critically wounded a top figure in the Taliban militia fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, one of six militants captured after a clash near the border Monday, the army said.
| We've got at least two other versions of this going, both under Afghanistan and Pakistain, but this adds a bit more detail, along with another pound of mud. |
Mansoor Dadullah, brother of slain Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah, and the five others were challenged by security forces as they crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan. They refused to stop and opened fire, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. "Security personnel returned fire. As a result, all of them sustained injuries and all of them were captured," Abbas said. "Dadullah was arrested alive but he is critically wounded."
| "There's a difference between being dead and mostly dead. When they're dead, all you can do is go through their pockets looking for change." |
 Earlier, a senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said Dadullah died of his wounds while being flown to a hospital with the other injured men.
| "[Gasp! Wheeze! Gag!] Roseburrrrrr..." |
Two Pakistani intelligence officials, who declined to be named for the same reason, gave a different account of Dadullah's capture, saying he was nabbed during a raid on a religious seminary in a neighboring district. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing accounts.
| That's because at least one and possibly both of the stories are complete and intentional lies. I'd guess the madrassah story to be the more likely, though whether it was a raid or not is another question entirely. It's just as likely, and maybe moreso, that there was a shootout between two Koran study groups and the cops were called to haul away the bodies. |
Dadullah's capture comes amid growing Western pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamic militants launching attacks inside Afghanistan but increasingly destabilizing Pakistan itself.
| Picked right up on that, didn't they? And Mullah Mansour happens to be on Mullah Omar's pooplist, rendering him expendable. So it's likely he's gonna heroically die of his injuries. |
In Afghanistan, officials reacted cautiously. Spokesmen at Afghanistan's Interior and Defense ministries said they had no immediate comment.
| "Piss off. We got nuttin' to say." |
Lt. Col. David Accetta, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said he could not confirm the report.
Dadullah rose in the militia's ranks as an important commander in southern Afghanistan after his brother was killed during a military operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province in May.
| We know he's titzup. They showed the meat in that one. |
Abbas, the army spokesman, said Dadullah was captured near Gaddal, a border village in Qila Saifullah district in Baluchistan. Two Pakistani intelligence officials, however, gave the location as Gwal Ismailzai village, in neighboring Zhob district. They said five militants, not six, were captured and wounded, some critically.
One of the officials identified those captured with Dadullah on Monday as Haji Lala, Khudai Dad, Khaliq Dad and Abdur Razzak. He said the injured suspects were whisked away by an army helicopter from Zhob airport to an unknown destination.
In July 2007, another prominent militant, Abdullah Mehsud, died in Zhob, apparently after he was cornered by Pakistani security forces. Mehsud was a Taliban veteran of Guantanamo Bay who began fighting Pakistani security forces after his release from the U.S. prison for terror suspects in 2004.
In March 2007, two months before Mullah Dadullah was killed in Helmand, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, one of the two top deputies of Taliban supreme leader Omar, was arrested in Quetta — where Afghan officials claim Omar is hiding.
In December 2006, another top Omar lieutenant, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, died in a NATO airstrike in Helmand, near the Pakistan border. |