Captured Baradar providing clues on Taliban

Washington, May 6 (ANI): Captured Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is providing important information to American officials on the inner workings of the Taliban.

According to the New York Times, these pivotal insights will help the United States look for ways to end the war in Afghanistan.

Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader, was arrested in January outside Karachi, in a joint operation by American and Pakistani intelligence agents.

Officials, however, said that Baradar has not revealed details of Taliban combat operations, yielding little that American commanders would like to know as they prepare for a military operation around Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual base and Afghanistan's second largest city.

He has provided his American interrogators with a nuanced understanding of the strategy that the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is developing for negotiations with the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who is visiting Washington next week.

He is also offering a more detailed understanding of what prompted Mullah Omar to issue a new code of conduct for militants last year that directed fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

American officials say the code was meant to project a softer image to the Afghan people.

Four American military, intelligence and diplomatic officials provided details of Mullah Baradar's cooperation, but requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the delicate intelligence interrogations. (ANI)