Taliban leader Mullah Omar has died, Afghan officials say

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency said Wednesday that the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been dead for more than two years.

“When he was informed about this, he escaped Afghanistan and with the help of Pakistani militant groups and took refuge in Pakistan”, Kohistani said, claiming Omar died three years ago before his body was returned to Afghanistan.

In the last purported message from Mullah Omar, released this month to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mullah Omar endorsed the Afghan peace talks as religiously “legitimate”.

Earlier, Afghan intelligence’s National Directorate of Security said Mullah Mohammed Omar died in Pakistan in April 2013. “Once we get a full confirmation on that, we’ll let you know”.

A statement later Wednesday from the office of the president said it had confirmed the death based on what it called “accurate information” and insisted that Mullah Omar’s demise would benefit peace efforts.

His alliance with Al-Qaida led to the US/UK invasion of Afghan in 2001 after a series of terror attacks in the States and around the world. He has not been seen in public since.

Another name often mentioned as a possible successor to Omar is his eldest son, Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob.

The White House said it was aware of reports of the death of Omar and believed them to be “credible”.

The official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to give statements to the press, did not provide further details.

Omar was said to have been killed in 2011 in Pakistan, a claim that the Taliban swiftly dismissed at the time.

His death has not yet been independently confirmed by American intelligence sources.

“These death confirmations and rejections are all part of a big pitch for power within an increasingly fractured and rudderless organization”, he said of the Taliban.

According to the report, Omar died two years ago from Tuberculosis, but if these claims are true, it means the Taliban published a biography of their supreme leader after he was already dead.

“His death raises questions about who will lead the movement that allied with al Qaeda, fought a war with the U.S. and is now divided over whether to pursue an elusive peace deal with Afghanistan’s new government”, reports The Wall Street Journal from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Taliban’s longtime leader Mullah Omar is dead, the Afghan government announced Wednesday after a day of feverish speculation.

The above is, of course, the conventional wisdom and how most observers in the west continue to regard the internal operations of the Taliban.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to journalists about the situation.

Omar was born around 1960 in rural southern Afghanistan.