Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency said Wednesday that the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been dead for more than two years. Schultz says the intelligence community is looking into the reports.
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“There is a serious ongoing power struggle that will now become more apparent between his hard-line followers and those who are more amenable to current reconciliation initiatives facilitated by Pakistan”, he said, referring to peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban that were hosted in Pakistan this month.
The insurgents have not officially confirmed the death of the supreme leader of the Taliban, who has not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul.
Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, made the announcement at a hastily called news conference Wednesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
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.
“Whether he is dead or alive is important because he is the collective figure for the Taliban”, said a Western diplomat with connections to the Taliban leadership. “With Omar out of the equation, more are likely to join (ISIS)”. “We are still in the process of checking those reports, and as soon as we get confirmation or verification, we will inform the Afghan people and the media”.
The BBC and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that unnamed sources in Afghanistan were saying Omar was dead.
It was not immediately clear why his death was only being announced now. Twice in 2011, the Taliban denied speculation that he had been killed. The Taliban, which he led, held out the promise of a pure, peaceful and corruption-free society – an appealing prospect for Afghans who had been brutalized for a decade by Soviet invaders and then a civil war. The piece appeared on a Taliban website. He said the Afghan government had been aware of Mullah Omar’s death for two years and had made it public on a number of occasions.
Known as “leader of the pious”, Omar was the leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, he was wanted by the United States for sheltering al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden in the run up to the 9/11 attacks.
Taliban insurgents have spread their war from the traditional southern and eastern heartlands bordering Pakistan to northern Afghanistan this year.
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The strategy has spread Afghan military resources thin after U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces ended their combat mission at the end of previous year. The State Department is now offering a $10 million reward for information leading to him.
