Taliban arrest

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Another high-ranking Taliban leader was arrested by Pakistani forces, an intelligence official in the country claims.

The official told The New York Times Mullah Abdul Kabir, considered part of the top Taliban leadership group, was detained last week in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province. He is the second highly placed Taliban leader to be captured, joining Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested last month.

The Kabir arrest hasn't been officially announced but, if true, would mark another blow to the Taliban, which has used the area of northwest Pakistan as a base of operations.

Kabir is considered a close aide to Taliban overall leader Mullah Omar. He is thought to have directed the group's military operations in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.

The arrests of Baradar and Kabir are seen as a potential shift in Pakistani policy in how Islamabad deals with the Taliban. The Times quoted Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official now with the Brookings Institution, as saying, "If the safe haven (in Pakistan) is closing ... then the Taliban are in trouble."