Senior Taliban Figure Caught in Pakistan

[February 11, 2008]  QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani security forces critically wounded a top figure in the Taliban militia fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, among six militants captured after a firefight near the border Monday, the army said.

Mansoor Dadullah, brother of the Taliban's slain military commander Mullah Dadullah, and the five others were challenged by security forces as they crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan. They refused to stop and opened fire, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

"Security personnel returned fire. As a result all of them sustained injuries and all of them were captured," Abbas said. "Dadullah was arrested alive but he is critically wounded."

Earlier, a senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said Dadullah died of his wounds while being flown to a hospital with the other injured men.

(This version CORRECTS the earlier one that quoted a senior Pakistani military official as saying Mansoor Dadullah had been killed. Pakistan's army spokesman says Dadullah survived but was critically wounded.)

[Associated Press; By ABDUL SATTAR]

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