(Image source: Institute for the Study of War)

BY TRACY PFEIFFER

ANCHOR BLAKE HANSON

NATO-led forces say they’ve captured a senior Haqqani network leader in Afghanistan.

Here’s CNN with more.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN: “Haji Mali Khan is a key operational leader. He’s also the uncle of Siraj Haqqani, who’s kind of the leader, the figurehead, of the Haqqani network, the group responsible for the lengthy attack here in Kabul on the United States embassy and for many other NATO deaths in the past. …We also understand that he was heavily armed when found, but eventually gave himself up.”

The Haqqani network, which operates largely along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, has recently been linked to the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani .

U.S. officials have accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of actively supporting the Taliban-linked group.

A writer for The National Post describes the organization as...

“A criminal clan that specializes in extortion, murder, kidnapping and smuggling... Linked with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, backed secretly by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency and, for decades, a mentor to Arab, Uzbek, Chechen, Turkish and Pakistani jihadists, the group fields up to 15,000 fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Reports say the network did not respond for comment, but the Financial Times reports a Taliban spokesman has denied Khan’s capture.

“I have just spoken with Haji Mali Khan, he is fine and is somewhere else and hasn’t been detained... This is a baseless news and it has been released in order to weaken Mujahideen’s morale.”

The BBC’s Paul Wood says the loss of a leader doesn’t necessarily weaken the organization.

“...they're said to have access to an almost limitless supply of young men in the tribal areas of Pakistan willing to carry out suicide attacks. If confirmed, the capture of Commander Khan, while undoubtedly a success for Nato, won't change that.”

And all this -- just days after news that a drone strike reportedly killed American-born militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

But a retired FBI agent tells Fox News, all this activity suggests the United States’ role in the Middle East shouldn’t get rolled back just yet.

CLAYTON MORRIS, FOX NEWS: “This comes at a point for us when we’re talking about withdrawing troops and drawing down our presence there, and now we’re learning that other militant groups are going into Afghanistan and setting up camp?”

BOB BUKOWSKI, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: “It shows that the area is still unstable. We have to, obviously, stabilize it a little bit more, but it’s tough because politically we’re pulling out troops. But yet, these camps, which Afghanistan was known for camps -- originally with al Qaeda -- um, is still a factor.”