Top Taliban figure caught in Pakistan

 UPDATE:There are conflicting global news reports that Mullah Mansoor Dadullah has been killed by Pakistani security forces after suffering wounds from  a gunfight during his capture.

 

The noose is tightening
around Taliban leadership that continues to fight against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Mansoor Dadullah was one of the militants captured and is the half brother to
Mullah Dadullah, the senior Taliban military commander in Afghanistan
until his death in 2007. Until Mansoor's earlier dismissal as a Taliban leader
he was a commander of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Back in May 2007 Mansoor Dadullah was released from an Afghan jail with other Taliban militants in
exhange for Daniele Mastrogiacoma, an Italian-Swiss journalist, to the dismay
of the United States.



[q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/22/us.italy.journalist/index.html"]The
United States is criticizing
Italy
for its deal to free five Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of an
Italian journalist.[/q]
Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Admiral Mullen recently met with top officals in Islamabad
concerning the growing threat of militants using the Pakistan
remote tribal areas as a staging ground as cover in the war against coalition
forces across the border in Afghanistan.

[q
url="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/world/asia/10mullen.html?ref=world"]In
a written assessment to Congress last week, Admiral Mullen said he believed the
next terrorist attack on the United
States would probably be started by Qaeda
terrorists operating from the Pakistani tribal areas. On Saturday, he referred
to the “mutual” interest of the United States
and Pakistan
in quashing the “upsurge in violence” from “an enemy that will not cease.”[/q]
This latest development in the capture of
Taliban militants in Pakistan illuminates
the growing problem that is developing with cross border insurgency.