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US troops capture a senior Pakistan Taliban leader in Afghanistan
[Washington Post] The U.S. confirmed on Friday that American troops are holding a senior Pak Taliban capo, a blow to the Pak Taliban who have waged a decadelong insurgency against Islamabad and were responsible for the failed 2010 attempt to detonate a bomb in New York's Times Square.Latif Mehsud, a leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, or TTP, was captured by U.S. forces in a military operation, Marie Harf, deputy spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said in Washington. "Mehsud is a senior commander in TTP, and served as a trusted confident of the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud," Harf said. "TTP grabbed credit, as folks probably know, for the attempted bombing of Times Square in 2010 and has vowed to attack the U.S. homeland again. TPP is also responsible for attacking our diplomats in Pakistain and attacks that have killed countless Pak civilians." The news surfaced as U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... was in Kabul trying to negotiate the terms of a U.S.-Afghan security agreement that would govern the activities of American forces in Afghanistan after the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... -led combat mission ends at the close of next year. Harf said she did not have any details of how, when or where Mehsud was captured. Arsallah Jamal, governor of Pashtun-infested Logar province in eastern Afghanistan, said Mehsud was captured a week ago as he was driving along a main highway in Mohammad Agha district. The road links the province with the Afghan capital, Kabul. Jamal said Mehsud was in a car with two or three other men when the U.S. military tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! him. The Pak Taliban confirmed the capture but claimed Mehsud was seized Oct. 5 by the Afghan army at the Ghulam Khan border crossing in the eastern province of Khost ...which coincidentally borders North Wazoo and Kurram Agency... He was returning from a meeting to discuss swapping Afghan prisoners for money, said Pak Taliban capos and intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... because they were not authorized to speak with the media. The Pak intelligence officials said American forces seized Mehsud while he was with the Afghan army, and that they no longer know where he is. Mehsud, believed to be around 30 years old, once served as Hakimullah Mehsud's driver but eventually became a trusted deputy. The two are not related. Mehsud is a common name in the region. The U.S. military in Kabul referred all questions to the Defense Department in Washington. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith, said the Pentagon had no comment on the report. A U.S. defense official said Mehsud was being lawfully held by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. A senior U.S. official said the arrest did not please Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , who apparently saw it as a violation of Afghan illusory sovereignty. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the issue with the media. There was no immediate comment from Karzai's office on the report. The detention may have contributed to a series of emotional outbursts this week by Karzai, who alleged that the U.S. and NATO have inflicted suffering on the Afghan people and repeatedly have violated its illusory sovereignty. There were reports that talks over the past two weeks on a bilateral security agreement were delayed because of the incident. American and Afghan officials have been meeting in recent days to negotiate the final details of the deal. Posted by: Fred 2013-10-12 |
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