Afghanistan’s spy agency says the Taliban’s founder, Mullah Omar, died in 2013
Wednesday, July 29, 2015 11:36 AM EDT
The Afghan intelligence service said Wednesday that it believes that the Taliban’s reclusive founder and spiritual leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, died in a Pakistani hospital in 2013, a dozen years after he fled Afghanistan.
The spokesman for the intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, Abdul Hassib Seddiqi, said in an interview that he is believed to have died in a hospital outside the Pakistani city of Karachi.
The announcement follows months of increasing speculation that Mullah Omar had died. The issue has become a major point of disgruntlement within the Taliban itself, with some commanders splitting off because they felt the leadership had changed.
Rumors of Mullah Omar’s death have surfaced periodically over the years, always denied by Taliban officials, who said he remained incommunicado for protection against American airstrikes and raids.
Last week, a group known as Feday-e-Mahaz, a Taliban splinter group, made the death claims, while The News, a Pakistani newspaper, wrote that Mullah Omar’s son Yaqoub would be replacing him.
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