Taliban’s Mullah Omar ‘died in Pakistan in 2013’, Afghan government says

Following a news release of the Afghan government on death of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said on Wednesday that he could not confirm the death but the administration believes the reports are “credible”.

The Taliban have reportedly seen defections to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in recent months, with some fighters expressing their disaffection with Omar who has not been seen since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

“We can confirm that Mullah Omar died two years ago…in Pakistan due to an illness”, a separate official in Afghanistan’s national unity government told AFP.

The Taliban appear to be maintaining a studied silence, but the Afghan presidential statement said grounds for the discussions are more solid now than before, and implored all insurgents to join the peace process.

The comments came after unnamed government and militant sources said earlier that he had died. The Taliban could not immediately be reached for comment. “Twice in 2011, the Taliban denied speculation that he had been killed”, CNN reports.

“News of his death comes at a hard time for the movement, which is deeply divided over whether to pursue peace talks with the Afghan government with the aim of ending the 14-year war”, the Journal reports.

Omar helped lead the Taliban to victory against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Taliban insurgents have spread their war from the traditional southern and eastern heartlands bordering Pakistan to northern Afghanistan this year.

Sources at the Taliban’s two main councils in Quetta and Peshawar told the BBC they were in intensive talks to agree on a replacement for Mullah Omar.

Afghan News Agency on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook.

He added that a faction within the Taliban wanted one of Omar’s sons to take over, while another favored the promotion of political leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who has been among those who support peace talks.

The US placed a bounty of €8.5 million ($10m) on his head.

FILE – In this undated image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mullah Omar is… It also raises questions about the authority of Taliban representatives who attended a first round of talks in Pakistan on July 7, as well as earlier informal meetings in Qatar and Norway.

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.