Via the NYT, Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander:
The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.
It is always difficult to know exactly how significant a given commander is in these situation or, at least, how disruptive a given capture or elimination might create. The NYT piece describes Baradar as an important part of a hierarchical structure:
Mullah Baradar oversees the group’s operations across its primary area of activity in southern and western Afghanistan. While some of the insurgent groups active in Afghanistan receive only general guidance from their leaders, the Taliban are believed to be somewhat hierarchical, with lower-ranking field commanders often taking directions and orders from their leaders across the border.
Another piece of information in the piece that is of potential significance in terms of policy in the region is that the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, appear to have been heavily involved and worked the operation in cooperation with the CIA. This is of interest because there have been complaints for years that the ISI was uncooperative and, indeed, might harbor sympathies for the Taliban based on longstanding relationships that predate the current conflict.
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