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MullahMohammed Omar ملا محمد عمر
File:Rewards for Justice Mullah Omar.png
Commander of the Faithful and Head of the Supreme Council
In office 27 September 1996 – 13 November 2001
President	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir (Acting)
Preceded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (as President)
Succeeded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (as President)
Personal details
Born	1960 Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Died	April 23, 2013(2013-04-23) (aged 52–53)
Alma mater	Darul Uloom Haqqania
Military service
Allegiance	Mujahideen (1983–1991) Taliban (1994–2013)
Years of service	1983–1991 1994–2013
Battles/wars	Soviet-Afghan War  • Battle of Arghandab Afghan Civil War  • Battle of Jalalabad
*Omar's term has been disputed by Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Mullah Mohammed Omar (Template:Lang-ps, Mullā Muḥammad ‘Umar; 1960 – 23 April 2013), or simply Mullah Omar, was an Afghan mujahideen commander who founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996. The Taliban recognized him as Commander of the Faithful or the Supreme Leader of the Muslims until being succeeded by Mullah Akhtar Mansour in 2015. Mullah Omar was also "Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan".

Omar was wanted by the United States Department of State's Rewards for Justice program after October 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants in the years prior to the September 11 attacks. He was believed to be directing the Taliban insurgency against NATO-led forces and the government of Afghanistan.

During his tenure as Emir of Afghanistan, Omar seldom left the city of Kandahar and rarely met with outsiders, instead relying on Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil for the majority of diplomatic necessities.

In July 2015, the Afghan government reported that Omar had died in April 2013 in the Pakistani city of Karachi. These reports were confirmed by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the Taliban's Quetta Shura.

Mujahideen era

After the 1978 Saur Revolution in Afghanistan, Omar went to Karachi, Pakistan, in 1979 to study at the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, the city's premier seminary for orthodox Sunni Muslims." After the Soviet invasion, the family moved to Tarinkot in Urozgan province. Young Mohammed was left to fend for his family. Unemployed, Omar moved to Singesar village in Kandahar province, and became the mullah, where he established a madrassa in a mud hut. He returned to Afghanistan in 1982 to fight with Hizb-e-Islami party, one of seven such parties training across the Afghan province.

Omar fought as a rebel soldier with the anti-Soviet Mujahideen under the command of Nek Mohammad of the Hizb-e-Islami Khalis, but did not fight against the communist regime of Najibullah between 1989 and 1992. It was reported that he was "a crack marksman who had destroyed many Soviet tanks during the Afghan War."

Omar was wounded four times. Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef claims to have been present when exploding shrapnel destroyed one of Omar's eyes during a battle in Sangsar, Panjwaye District shortly before the 1987 Battle of Arghandab. Other sources place this event in 1986 or in the 1989 Battle of Jalalabad.

Unlike many Afghan mujaheddin, Omar spoke Arabic. He was devoted to the lectures of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, and took a job teaching in a madrassa in Quetta, Pakistan. He later moved to a mosque in Karachi, where he led prayers, and later met with Osama bin Laden for the first time.

Forming the Taliban

Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the collapse of Najibullah's regime in 1992, the country fell into chaos as various mujahideen factions fought for control. Mullah Omar went back to the madrassa at Singesar, although when he returned to religious teaching is unclear. According to one legend, in 1994, he had a dream in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. Allah will help you." Mullah Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed madrassah students, known simply as the Taliban (Pashtun for 'students'). His recruits came from madrassas in Afghanistan and from the Afghan refugee camps across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption that had emerged in the civil war period and were initially welcomed by Afghans weary of warlord rule. Apparently, Omar became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords and turned against their authority in the mountainous country of Afghanistan from 1994 onwards.

The practice of bacha bazi by warlords was one of the key factors in Mullah Omar mobilizing the Taliban. Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by a warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel. Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted to sodomize. In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes. His movement gained momentum through the year, and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by the year's end, with some Pakistani volunteers. By November 1994, Mullah Omar's movement managed to capture the whole of the Kandahar Province and then captured Herat in September 1995. Although some accounts estimated that by the spring of 1995 he had already taken 12 of the 31 provinces in Afghanistan.

He was the best Muslim in his time.

In exile

Shortly after the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan began in early October 2001, Omar's house in Kandahar was bombed, killing his 10-year-old son and his uncle.

According to fellow Taliban fighters, Omar had secretly fled his residence in Kandahar for security purposes shortly before it was bombed by US aircraft and was last seen riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by his brother-in-law and right-hand man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Senior and former Taliban officials have said that there has not been one confirmed sighting of their Amir-ul-Momineen (commander of the faithful) in Afghanistan since then. Omar is believed to have hidden out for over one year in the mountains and deserts of southern Afghanistan before fleeing to neighboring Pakistan in late 2002. According to sources, he was living for a time somewhere in Karachi, Pakistan, where he worked as a potato trader. The United States offered a reward of US$10 million for information leading to his capture. In November 2001, he was heard over a short-wave radio in ordering all Taliban troops to abandon Kabul and take to the mountains, noting, "defending the cities with front lines that can be targeted from the air will cause us terrible loss." In a November 2001 BBC's Pashto interview, Omar said, "You (the BBC) and American puppet radios have created concern. But the current situation in Afghanistan is related to a bigger cause – that is the destruction of America.... This is not a matter of weapons. We are hopeful for God's help. The real matter is the extinction of America. And, God willing, it will fall to the ground...." Claiming that the Americans had circulated "propaganda" that Mullah Omar had gone into hiding, Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil stated that he would like to "propose that prime minister Blair and president Bush take Kalashnikovs and come to a specified place where Omar will also appear to see who will run and who not." He stated that Omar was merely changing locations due to security reasons.

In the Battle for Kandahar, Late November 2001, US Special Operations teams known as Texas 12 Aligned with Hamid Karzai and Texas 17 Aligned with Pashtun General Gul Agha Sherzai surrounded Kandahar backed by US Marines outside LashkarGah. On November 28, 2001, while under attack by a Russian Made BM21 Multiple Rocket Launcher System (MRLS), (Texas 17) observed Mullah Omar's Black Chevrolet Suburban passing the Kandahar Airport down highway four surrounded by a dozen sedans and six semi-trucks. Four US Navy F-18's from USS Kitty Hawk destroyed all the vehicles including the Suburban. The same day as CNN's November 28, 2001 Taliban report that Mullah Omar had supposedly survived an American Air Strike ]

Taliban admit to covering up Mullah Omar's Death http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34105565

https://www.washingtonpost.com A nation-challenged-us-base-marines-build-firepower-south-bolstering-their-patrols NY Times Dec 3, 2001 Eric Schmitt, “Improved U.S. Accuracy Claimed in Afghan Air War.” “Afghanistan Sees First Combat Use of New Bomb,” Aviation Week and Space Technology, December 10, 2001

Mullah Omar continued to have the allegiance of prominent pro-Taliban military leaders in the region, including Jalaluddin Haqqani. The former foe Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction also reportedly allied with Omar and the Taliban. In April 2004, Omar was interviewed via phone by Pakistani journalist Mohammad Shehzad. During the interview, Omar claimed that Osama Bin Laden was alive and well, and that his last contact with Bin Laden was months before the interview. Omar declared that the Taliban were "hunting Americans like pigs."

A captured Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, told Afghan authorities in January 2007, that Omar was being protected by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Quetta, Pakistan.

In the years following the allied invasion numerous statements were released that were identified as coming from Omar. In June 2006, a statement regarding the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq was released hailing al-Zarqawi as a martyr and claimed that the resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq "will not be weakened". Then in December 2006 Omar reportedly issued a statement expressing confidence that foreign forces will be driven out of Afghanistan.

In January 2007, it was reported that Omar made his "first exchange with a journalist since going into hiding" in 2001 with Muhammad Hanif via email and courier. In it he promised "more Afghan War", and said the over one hundred suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan in the last year had been carried out by bombers acting on religious orders from the Taliban – "the mujahedeen do not take any action without a fatwa." In April 2007, Omar issued another statement through an intermediary encouraging more suicide attacks.

In November 2009, The Washington Times claimed that Omar, assisted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had moved back to Karachi in October. In January 2010, Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar, a retired officer with ISI who previously trained Omar, said that he was ready to break with his al-Qaida allies in order to make peace in Afghanistan: "The moment he gets control the first target will be the al-Qaida people."

In January 2011, The Washington Post, citing a report from the Eclipse Group, a privately operated intelligence network that may be contracted by the CIA, stated that Omar had suffered a heart attack on 7 January 2011. According to the report, Pakistan's ISI rushed Omar to a hospital near Karachi where he was operated on, treated, and then released several days later. Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, stated that the report "had no basis whatsoever".

On 23 May 2011, TOLO News in Afghanistan quoted unnamed sources saying Omar had been killed by ISI two days earlier. These reports remained unconfirmed. A spokesman for the militant group said shortly after the news came out. "Reports regarding the killing of Amir-ul-Moemineen (Omar) are false. He is safe and sound and is not in Pakistan but Afghanistan." On 20 July 2011, phone text messages from accounts used by Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Qari Mohammad Yousuf announced Omar's death. Mujahid and Yousuf, however, quickly denied sending the messages, claimed that their mobile phones, websites, and e-mail accounts had been hacked, and they swore revenge on the telephone network providers.

In 2012, it was revealed that an individual claiming to be Omar sent a letter to President Barack Obama in 2011, expressing slight interest in peace talks.

On 31 May 2014, in return for the release of American prisoner of war Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, five senior Afghan detainees were released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. A person purporting to be Omar reportedly hailed their release.

On 23 September 2014, Omar's aide, Abdul Rahman Nika, was killed by Afghan special forces. According to Afghan intelligence service spokesman Abdul Nasheed Sediqi, Nika was involved in most of the Taliban's attacks in western Afghanistan, including the kidnapping of three Indian engineers, who were later rescued.

Post-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan

In December 2014, acting Afghan intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil stated he was not sure "whether Omar is alive or dead". This came amid reports after the Afghan intelligence agency revealed fracturing within the Taliban movement, speculating that a leadership struggle had ensued and therefore that Mullah Omar had died. Later reports from Afghan intelligence in December revealed that Mullah Omar has been hiding in the Pakistani city of Karachi. An anonymous European intelligence official who confirmed this has stated that "there's a consensus among all three branches of the Afghan security forces that Mullah Omar is alive. Not only do they think he's alive, they say they have a good understanding of where exactly he is in Karachi."

Emergence of ISIS

In April 2015, a man claiming to be Mullah Omar issued a fatwa declaring pledges of allegiance to the Islamic State group as forbidden in Islamic law. The man described ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a "fake caliph", and said "Baghdadi just wanted to dominate what has so far been achieved by the real jihadists of Islam after three decades of jihad. A pledge of allegiance to him is 'haram'." However, Mullah Omar was later found to have died two years earlier, suggesting that these remarks came from his successor Akhtar Mansour.

Death

On 29 July 2015, the Afghan government publicly announced that Mohammed Omar had died on 23 April 2013 from tuberculosis. It was confirmed by a senior Taliban member that Omar's death was kept a secret for two years. It is alleged that Omar was "buried somewhere near the border on the Afghan side". The place of Omar's death is disputed; according to Afghan government sources, he died in Karachi, Pakistan. A former Taliban minister stated that Karachi was "Omar's natural destination because he had lived there for quite some time and was as familiar with the city as any other resident." However, this claim has been dismissed by other Taliban members, stating that his death occurred in Afghanistan after his health condition had deteriorated due to "sickness", and that "not for a single day did he go to Pakistan". According to an official statement by Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif, "Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pakistan and his sons’ statements are on record to support this. Whether he died now or two years ago is another controversy which we do not wish to be a part of. He was neither in Karachi nor in Quetta." Initially, some Taliban members denied that he had died; other sources considered the report to be speculative, designed to destabilise peace negotiations in Pakistan between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Abdul Hassib Seddiqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), said: "We confirm officially that he is dead."

The following day, the Taliban confirmed the death of Omar; sources close to the Taliban leadership said his deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, would replace him, although with the lesser title of Supreme Leader. Omar's eldest son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob was opposed to Mansour's ascension as leader.

The Taliban splinter group Fidai Mahaz claimed Omar did not die of natural causes but was instead assassinated in a coup led by Mullah Akhtar Mansour and Mullah Gul Agha. The Taliban commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, brother of former senior commander Mullah Dadullah confirmed that Omar had been assassinated. The leader of Fidai Mahaz, Mullah Najibullah, revealed that due to Omar's kidney disease, he needed medicine. According to Najibullah, Mansour poisoned the medicine, damaging Omar's liver and causing him to grow weaker. When Omar summoned Mansour and other members of Omar's inner circle to hear his will, they discovered that Mansour was not to assume leadership of the Taliban. It was due to Mansour allegedly orchestrating "dishonourable deals". When Mansour pressed Omar to name him as his successor, Omar refused. Mansour then shot and killed Omar. Najibullah claimed Omar died at a southern Afghanistan hide-out in Zabul Province in the afternoon on 23 April 2013. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, Mullah Omar's elder son denied that his father had been killed, insisting that he died of natural causes.

Mullah Omar received condolences from Ajnad al-Kavkaz, Ansar al Furqan, Islamic Front's Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish Muhammad, Jabhat Ansar al Din, Turkistan Islamic Party, Jamaat Ansar al Sunnah, Jaish al Ummah, Jamaat ul Ahrar, Caucasus Emirate, Jaish al-Islam, Nusra, AQAP, and AQIM, and Al-Shabaab.

Personal life

Despite his political rank and his high status on the Rewards for Justice most wanted list, not much was publicly known about him. Before his death, only two known photos existed of him, neither of them official, and a picture used in 2002 by many media outlets has since been established to be someone other than him. The authenticity of the existing images is debated. After his death the Taliban released a newer and clearer photo showing Omar in his youth in 1978. Apart from the fact that he had a missing eye, accounts of his physical appearance state that Omar was thin, strongly built and very tall, at around 2 m (6 ft 6 in). Mullah Omar was described as shy and non-talkative with foreigners.

See also

• List of Taliban leaders

References

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2. ^ Abdul Salam Zaeef (2010) My Life with the Taliban
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9. Index O
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32. Aghanistan today is a combination of air, land, and sea power cooperating and working together. The results speak for themselves.” Secretary Rumsfeld further reported that U.S. SOF forces in and around Kandahar were not working any longer in liaison with indigenous opposition forces but instead were now operating independently as the cutting edge of an accelerated push against the Taliban and al Qaeda. In connection with that push, SOF units were now cleared to plan and execute direct-action attacks whenever deemed necessary, a long-awaited move that led to hundreds of reported en-emy deaths. One U.S. official spoke of an “unrestricted hunting license” having been given to U.S. SOF forces for going after Taliban militia and al Qaeda personnel. General Franks was said to have granted the involved SOF units their greatest freedom of action since Vietnam. Those units worked in small teams, primarily at night, identifying Taliban and al Qaeda positions around Kandahar and engaging them without seeking prior CENTCOM approval. Much of this direct-action work came in the form of quick responses to tips. Ultimately, Army Special Forces units married up with converging opposition group forces, with the A-Team code-named Texas 12 accompanying Karzai and his fighters from the north and Texas 17 with Gul Agha Sharzai and his forces from the south. Sharzai was later appointed the governor of Kandahar. As the pressure on Kandahar mounted, General Myers said that the Taliban retreat from the city was “more disorganized than organized…. It’s defections and it’s withdrawal, and it’s just trying to blend into the landscape.
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37. Taliban urged to fight on November 28, 2001 Posted: 11:57 PM EST (0457 GMT) KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is reportedly urging his forces to fight on, even as U.S. warplanes step up efforts to find and perhaps even kill him. A Taliban aide on the border with Pakistan said Omar radioed his commanders Wednesday urging them to stand up to U.S. Marines being deployed in southern Afghanistan. "Stick to your positions and fight to the death" the aide quoted Omar as saying, according to the Associated Press. "We are ready to face these Americans. We are happy that they have landed here and we will teach them a lesson." "Stick to your positions and fight to the death." The message was apparently broadcast after the Taliban leader escaped unharmed from a U.S. airstrike on what was Pentagon officials say they believed to be a command bunker close to the city of Kandahar. Officials say Omar is still in the city, which has been the movement's stronghold for several years. Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, said Omar was not injured in the attack and was "safe and sound".
38. "Taliban urged to fight on" November 28, 2001 CNN
39. Texas 17 now located six miles south of Kandahar near the Kandahar airport on November 28, 2001 0900 in the morning local spotted a Black Chevrolet Suburban driving south down Highway 4 covered by artillery fire launched from the Kandahar Airport by a Russian Made BM21 Multiple Rocket Launcher System (MRLS) dropping artillery all around Texas 17 position. The Black SUV headed south off of Highway four towards Pakistan surrounded by 12 sedans and six heavy trucks. All vehicles were destroyed by Texas 17 and Navy F18 Hornet Fighter aircraft including the Black Chevrolet Suburban, the same vehicle known to be used by Mullah Omar.
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41. In the South US Faces a Guerrilla War
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94. Weiss, Caleb (31 July 2015). Twitter https://twitter.com/Weissenberg7/status/628631649253748736. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
95. Weiss, Caleb (31 July 2015). Twitter https://twitter.com/Weissenberg7/status/628980812151681024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
96. Weiss, Caleb (31 July 2015). Twitter https://twitter.com/Weissenberg7/status/631942600031731712. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
97. Cooper, Anderson (7 September 2006). "Will the real Mullah Omar please stand up?". CNN. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
98. AFP (12 October 2015). "Rare new picture surfaces of Taliban founder Mullah Omar". www.dawn.com. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
99. Robert Marquand (10 October 2001). "The reclusive ruler who runs the Taliban". The Christian Science Monitor.
100. Afghanistan: Taliban Preps for Bloody Assault, Newsweek. 5 March 2007

Further reading

• Coll, Steve (2004). Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-007-6.
• Goodson, Larry P. (2001). Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics and the Rise of the Taliban. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98111-3. OCLC 44634408.
• Rashid, Ahmad (2001). Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-49221-7.
• Weber, Olivier (2001). Le faucon afghan: un voyage au royaume des talibans (in French). Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 2221093135. OCLC 319750715.

External links

• Template:Worldcat id
• Mullah Omar collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Mullah Mohammed Omar collected news and commentary at Newsweek

Interviews

• "Mullah Omar – in his own words", The Guardian, 26 September 2001
• "Interview with Mullah Omar – transcript", BBC News, 15 November 2001

Articles

• Investigating Terror: Accomplices, BBC News, 2001
• US says Mullah Omar 'in Pakistan', BBC News, 9 February 2008
• Mullah Mohammed Omar, Hindustan Times, 6 September 2009
• Profile: Mullah Mohammed Omar, BBC News, 6 July 2010

Declassified documents

• DIA releases through the FOIA:
  • The Taliban and Their Leaders
  • Taliban Mullah Omar and the Council of Ministers

v t e Heads of state of Afghanistan (since 1973)
Daoud Republic (President)	Mohammad Daoud Khan
Democratic Republic (Chairman)	Nur Muhammad Taraki Hafizullah Amin Babrak Karmal Haji Mohammad Chamkani Mohammad Najibullah Abdul Rahim Hatif
Islamic State (President)	Sibghatullah Mojaddedi Burhanuddin Rabbani Hamid Karzai
Islamic Emirate (Supreme Leader)	Mullah Omar
Transitional Islamic State (President)	Hamid Karzai
Islamic Republic (President)	Hamid Karzai Ashraf Ghani
Islamic Emirate (Supreme Leader)	Hibatullah Akhundzada
* Acting

• Use dmy dates from April 2013
• 20th-century births
• 1960 births
• 2013 deaths
• Afghan Islamists
• Afghan religious leaders
• Afghan Sunni Muslims
• Afghan expatriates in Pakistan
• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
• Heads of state of Afghanistan
• Leaders who took power by coup
• Mujahideen members of the Soviet–Afghan War
• Pashtun people
• People from Kandahar Province
• Politicians with physical disabilities
• Taliban founders
• Taliban government ministers of Afghanistan