A Taliban commander says he regrets the shooting occurred.
Yeah, sure. Malala, you can trust the Taliban on the day sharks go vegan.
Without the support of the general population, the Taliban is powerless. Someone like Malala here, who's generally highly respected by the people and a strong advocate of (in their eyes) western values is a far greater threat to their power than the US military could ever be. Should she actually succeed in stirring up a strong feminist movement in rural Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Taliban are going to have some serious problems on their hands.
That, or the guy's making a blatant political move within the organization. Even with the worst you can find there'll be people that find murdering women and children to be objectionable, with how much the taliban has been doing it lately I wouldn't be terribly surprised if a splinter group is beginning to form rejecting it. This guy wants to either catalyse it or lead it.
Otherwise he'd have done so anonymously. Or he's entirely misreading the situation and is about to die over it.
