Australian Forces Capture Key Taliban Leader In Afghanistan

Great, great news from the Aussies! Here's the detail from Yahoo News:

Australian soldiers have captured a key Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, the military said Sunday.

The Defence Department said that elite Australian troops in Uruzgan had last week taken in Mullah Bari Ghul -- a man they believe is a central figure in extremist attacks in the restive province.
Defence chiefs said Bari Ghul organised money, equipment and foreign fighters for extremist operations in Uruzgan and acted as "shadow governor" authorising attacks across the region.
"Mullah Bari Ghul was directly responsible for the importation of componentry, the provision of specialists in the construction of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and authorising their emplacement across the province," spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said.

There hasn't been a whole lot of press for the Aussies but this certainly makes up for it as this capture represents a very large figure for the Taliban to be taken in. One can only hope that under good solid interrogation, they can get some awesome information out of this clown.

What this represents is the total disruption of coordinated Taliban activity in the Uruzgan area - the article points out that the Taliban operate in very small cells throughout the region and only a select number of commanders know how their operations all tie together. Imagine it this way...you have four Taliban cells operating in a general area and one leader knows where each cell is supposed to be over the next week - when you remove that leader, you create chaos. And this capture represents the leader who was three steps above that mid level commander - this is the guy who was thinking long term and believe me, this is gonna hurt the Taliban big time.

Australian military says key Taliban commander captured

"Mullah Bari Ghul was directly responsible for the importation of componentry, the provision of specialists in the construction of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and authorising their emplacement across the province," spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said.
"He was also ultimately responsible for the July 13 suicide bomber attack in the Deh Rawood bazaar that killed 21 Afghans and injured a further 12."
Dawson said the capture of Bari Ghul, who was also involved in coordinating the actions of individual insurgency cells, would likely have an immediate impact on militant activity in the region.
"The loss of the one person who knew what was currently underway, what was planned for the future and had the contacts to gain further support is a significant blow to the Taliban extremists' command and control in the province," he said in a statement.
"Extremist cells in Afghanistan operate in small isolated groups and only a few key individuals have any sense of the overall provincial insurgency plan."
No details about the capture were revealed. Bari Ghul is being held in a Dutch detention facility in Tarin Kwot, Uruzgan.
Australia has about 1,000 troops based in Uruzgan province, most of whom are assisting a Dutch-led reconstruction operation in Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold.
Australia has deployed troops to Afghanistan for much of the time since the Taliban government was ousted in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leaders after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.