Blow to Pakistan Taleban as US troops capture top leader

KABUL: US troops are holding a senior Pakistani Taleban commander they captured in Afghanistan a week ago, an Afghan provincial official said Friday.
The capture could be a significant blow to the Pakistani Taleban, who have waged a decade-long insurgency against Islamabad from sanctuaries along the Afghan border. They have also helped the Afghan Taleban in their war against US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Latif Mehsud was arrested by American forces as he was driving along a main highway in eastern Logar province’s district of Mohammad Agha, said the Logar governor, Arsallah Jamal. The road links the province with the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Mehsud has served as a senior deputy to Pakistani Taleban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
The Pakistani Taleban confirmed the capture, but claimed Mehsud was seized by the Afghan army at the Ghulam Khan border crossing in the eastern province of Khost on Oct. 5.
He was returning from a meeting to discuss swapping Afghan prisoners for money, said Pakistani Taleban commanders and intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Afghan 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 worked his way up the ranks to become a trusted deputy. The two are not related and Mehsud is a common name in the region.
Jamal said Mehsud was in a car with two or three other men when the US military arrested him.
The US military in Kabul referred all questions to the Department of Defense in Washington.
A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai told the Washington Post that a senior Taleban commander was captured in Logar as he was being driven to a facility operated by the intelligence service for questioning. The spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said the commander, who he did not name, was then taken to an American detention facility in Bagram.