No word, however, on his identity. From AFP, with thanks to JE:
A “VERY IMPORTANT” Taliban commander was captured in some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan in years that has left nearly 200 rebels dead, officials said overnight.
The identity of the man caught in Kandahar province could not be released on security grounds, provincial governor Assadullah Khalid said, after reports he was Mullah Dadullah, credited as one of the masterminds of the Taliban insurgency launched nearly five years ago.
The man was badly wounded in a battle in Kandahar’s Panjwayi that started on Wednesday and was fought by Taliban rebels who had come from across Afghanistan, Gov Khalid said. Around 100 were killed he said, updating a previous figure of 18.
The US-led coalition helping to fight Taliban rebels announced meanwhile that 60 “enemy” were killed in a separate battle on Wednesday in neighbouring Helmand province. Afghan officials had said about 40 were killed.
The new tolls took past 190 the number of insurgents killed in two days of clashes between security forces and Taliban rebels in some of the heaviest fighting since the regime was toppled in 2001 by a US-led invasion….
Meanwhile, a bit of heat from Karzai and a British official for our friend and ally:
President Hamid Karzai charged Thursday that those behind the almost daily bloodshed were being trained in religious schools in neighbouring Pakistan.
His statement was echoed by Colonel Chris Vernon, chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, who said in a British newspaper that Taliban militants were launching attacks from inside Pakistan.
Pakistan angrily rejected the allegations overnight.