Mullah Omar, the reclusive cleric who founded Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrilla movement and sheltered al-Qaeda leaders as they plotted the 11 September 2001, attacks on the US, is dead, an Afghan government official said.
Advertisement
“We have confirmation from multiple sources”, Haseeb Siddiqi, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, said.
News of Mullah Omar’s death comes at a hard time for the Taliban, which is deeply divided over whether to engage in peace negotiations with the Afghan government with the goal of ending the 14-year Afghanistan war.
“We are aware of the reports of the passing away of Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader“, Hashemi said. The involvement of Pakistan, which has close ties with the Taliban leadership, appeared to signal a new level of seriousness to peace efforts.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States was also looking into the reliability of the latest reports.
The government said that grounds for the Afghan peace talks “are more paved now than before”.
In April, to mark his 19th year in charge, the Taliban published a 5,000-word biography of Omar that aimed to clear up many disputed facts about his upbringing.
But spokesman Eric Schultz would not be drawn on a specific claim made by Afghanistan that he had died two years ago in Pakistan.
“Mullah Omar was the leader of terrorist groups in Afghanistan”. For his Afghan followers and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida militants, Mullah Omar held the supreme status of “Commander of the Faithful”.
News of his death would likely complicate peace talks for the militants, who need to find a replacement backed by the majority of fighters.
That led to a Taliban insurgency that continues to this day, even as U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops are drawing down their numbers in Afghanistan.
Omar was said to have been killed in 2011 in Pakistan, a claim that the Taliban swiftly dismissed at the time.
“Concurrently with armed jihad, political endeavors and peaceful pathways for achieving these sacred goals is a legitimate Islamic principle and an integral part of Prophetic politics”, he said in a statement earlier this month, according to CNN.
While his movement won control of most of the country, Mullah Omar was rarely seen in public.
The Taliban have reportedly seen defections to the Islamic State in recent months, with some insurgents expressing disaffection with the low-profile leader Omar.
A later statement from Ghani’s office said its confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death was based on “accurate information” and that his demise would benefit peace efforts.
Insurgent sources claim that Mullah Mansour, the current Taliban deputy, and Omar’s son Mohammad Yakoub are both top contenders to replace him.
That prompted the US to declare war on the Taliban and overthrow its regime with the help of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
Advertisement
From 1996 until 2001, the group ruled Afghanistan with a severe brand of Islam, until it was forced out of power by a U.S.-led invasion.
