Taliban commander arrested

The Washington Times reports that the US captured Latif Mehsud, a leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) near the Afghan/Pakistan border last week. Mehsud claims to be the mastermind of the failed New York City Times Square bombing, as mush as a mastermind is needed to plan a failed bombing.

“Mehsud is a senior commander in TTP, and served as a trusted confident of the group’s leader, Hakimullah Mehsud,” Harf said. “TTP claimed responsibility, 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 Pakistan and attacks that have killed countless Pakistani civilians.”

The news surfaced as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry 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-led combat mission ends at the close of next year.

The US claims that US forces captured him, but the Taliban claims that hew as captured by Afghan forces, so I guess that matters over there. They also claim that he was returning from a meeting in regards to the peace talks.

Of course, senior Taliban chieftain and part time Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, isn’t very happy about the whole thing;

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 Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who apparently saw it as a violation of Afghan sovereignty.

Thanks to Tman for the link.

Category: Terror War