Gates says Taliban arrests mark progress

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the recent arrests of high-level Taliban fighters by the Pakistan Islamabad government, as “real progress” and “another positive indication” of its commitment to stabilize borders with its neighboring country, Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities, earlier in February, were able to arrest the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi (a southern Pakistani city). With the arrest are a couple of Taliban “shadow governors” from two Afghan provinces as well as several other militant suspects who are linked to the al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

In a press conference at the Pentagon, Gates said to reporters that “what we are seeing is the importance of operations on both sides of the border.”