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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says authorities have captured a high-level Al Qaeda figure who helped Usama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001. Officials declined to say when or where Mohammad Rahim was captured -- announcing only that he was handed over by the CIA to the Pentagon earlier this week and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman says Rahim is a close associate of bin Laden and has ties to al-Qaida organizations throughout the Middle East. Whitman says Rahim helped prepare the hideout at Tora Bora, a mountain area used by bin Laden...

Afghans arrest Taliban commander KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan forces have arrested a senior Taliban commander accused of leading attacks against Afghan and U.S.-led troops based in the west of the country, a defense ministry spokesman said on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT Haji Sultan, a division commander for the Taliban, was arrested with Mullah Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taliban official, in the western province of Farah on Saturday, said the spokesman, Zahir Azimy. "Haji Sultan was on the U.S. military black list and we handed him over to them for investigation," Azimy said. The U.S. military confirmed Sultan's arrest, describing him as a...