WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The capture of the Taliban’s top military commander in Pakistan followed months of behind-the-scenes prodding by US officials who saw inaction by Islamabad as a major threat to their Afghan war strategy.
But officials and analysts said it was too soon to tell whether Pakistan’s cooperation against Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — captured earlier this month in a joint raid in Karachi by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence agencies — would be extended to other top militants on the U.S. hit list.
“This is a game of inches. It is highly unlikely the Pakistanis would turn 100 percent overnight,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, now with the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
Mullah Baradar has been described as one of the Afghan Taliban’s top strategic leaders, and US officials said interrogations now under way could produce significant intelligence about the group’s leadership, capabilities and military operations at a critical time of stepped-up US operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.
“This is a major player in the Afghan Taliban. If he’s off the streets, it would be a serious setback for the Taliban in the near term and deal a severe personal blow to (Taliban chief) Mullah Omar, who has relied on him for years as a trusted associate,” a US national security official said.
Other US officials were more cautious, citing the Taliban’s resilience as an organization and ability to fill the void for leaders soon after they are captured or killed. “How long it takes them to … reconstitute depends on the situation,” Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
The raid that caught Mullah Baradar was carried out by Pakistan’s spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and involved CIA operatives, according to US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
