Senior Taliban commander captured - BBC

KABUL, May 19 (Reuters) - A senior Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, has been captured in Afghanistan, the BBC reported on Friday, quoting high-ranking Afghan officials.

It said on its Web site that Dadullah was captured by international troops in the southern province of Kandahar.

It said the Taliban had not confirmed the arrest of Dadullah, who has been blamed for much of the recent violence in the southern province of Helmand where thousands of British troops are being deployed.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said some high-ranking Taliban had been captured this week but he could not confirm the BBC report.

"There was an operation and three high-ranking Taliban commanders have been captured but I cannot confirm that Mullah Dadullah was one of them," said the spokesman, Karim Rahimi.

Dadullah is a one-legged veteran of the mujahideen war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and later became one of the Taliban's most feared field commanders.

He is a member of the Taliban's 10-man leadership council and is regarded as close to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.