“The timing of this revelation looks like an attempt to scupper the tentative progress that has been made in the peace process”, she says.
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“We confirm officially that he is dead”, Abdul Hassib Seddiqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, told The Associated Press. According to some reports, Omar was buried in Afghanistan.
Since his disappearance, there has been repeated speculation that Mullah Omar may have died, either during fighting or from health-related reasons.
In a statement issued by the office of the president, the government said their report was based on “credible information”.
His death would leave the Taliban without a leader, making it vulnerable to fracturing under pressure as it enters into talks to end the war.
Omar’s death will likely work to the advantage of ISIS, which is seeking to make inroads among the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban. “I doubt the Taliban has been pretending that he has been alive”, Joscelyn said.
If confirmed, Omar’s death would mark a significant blow to an nearly 14-year insurgency, which is torn apart by internal divisions and threatened by the rise of the so-called Islamic State group in South Asia. The Taliban could not be immediately reached for comment on the government’s claims about Omar, who has been declared dead many times before.
Omar helped lead the Taliban to victory against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
May 2, 2011 – U.S. special forces kill bin Laden in a raid on his hiding place in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
The source who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity said that the issue of Mullah Omar’s death was raised at a meeting with security ministers and members of the country’s high peace council, which is negotiating with the militants.
In the July 15, Eid-eve message that the Taliban attributed to Omar, the militant chief hailed as “legitimate” the peace talks between his group and the Afghan government aimed at ending the 13-year war in Afghanistan.
Omar, who was Afghanistan’s 11th head of state from 1996 to late 2001, was believed to have been living in Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan. The Taliban eventually swept across the nation.
Later, he allied with Osama Bin Laden and took over as leader of the Taliban in 1996.
They agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, drawing global praise, but many ground commanders openly questioned the legitimacy of the Taliban negotiators, exposing unsafe faultlines within the movement.
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The U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan ended last year, leaving the Afghan military to lead the fight against the Taliban.
