{"id":57612,"date":"2015-07-29T23:07:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T15:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=57612"},"modified":"2025-01-13T10:55:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T15:55:36","slug":"afghanistan-examining-claim-taliban-leader-mullah-omar-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/29\/afghanistan-examining-claim-taliban-leader-mullah-omar-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan examining claim Taliban leader Mullah Omar died"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_57643\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57643\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/741083-mullahomar-1406315124-483-640x480.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-57643\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/741083-mullahomar-1406315124-483-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Mullah Omar (Khalid Hadi \/ Wikimedia Commons \/ enhanced image)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/741083-mullahomar-1406315124-483-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/741083-mullahomar-1406315124-483-640x480-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57643\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mullah Omar (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mohammed_Omar#\/media\/File:Rewards_for_Justice_Mullah_Omar.png\">Khalid Hadi \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ enhanced image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>KABUL, Afghanistan &#8212; An Afghan official said Wednesday his government is examining claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is dead. The Taliban could not be immediately reached on the government&#8217;s comments about Omar, who has been declared dead many times before.<\/p>\n<p>Omar, the one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban and an al-Qaida ally, led a bloody insurgency against U.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy clomid online <a href=\"https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/clomid.html\">https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/clomid.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p>S.-led forces after they toppled him from his rule in Afghanistan in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are aware of the reports of the passing away of Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader,&#8221; Hashemi said. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he wasn&#8217;t authorized to brief journalists, called the circling rumors &#8220;speculation&#8221; designed to disrupt peace talks.<\/p>\n<p>The rumors come two days before the next round of talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives is due to be held in Pakistan. A senior government official confirmed the meeting will take place in the resort town of Murree, where the first round was held on July 7.<\/p>\n<p>He said one woman, Sediqa Balhki, would be included in the Afghan delegation. Balkhi is a member of the High Peace Council, the body charged with forging peace with the insurgents. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn&#8217;t authorized to speak to journalists.<\/p>\n<p>If Omar died, it could complicate the peace process as it removes a figurehead for the insurgents, who until now have appeared to act collectively but are believed to be split on whether to continue the war or negotiate with Ghani&#8217;s government. Ending the war has been a main priority for Ghani since he took office last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether he is dead or alive is important because he is the collective figure for the Taliban,&#8221; said a Western diplomat with connections to the Taliban leadership.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy soft cialis online <a href=\"https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/soft-cialis.html\">https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/soft-cialis.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p> &#8220;If he is dead, it would be much more difficult to get negotiations with the Taliban because there would be no collective figure to rally around and take collective responsibility for entering peace talks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to journalists about the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Taliban insurgents have spread their war from the traditional southern and eastern heartlands bordering Pakistan to northern Afghanistan this year.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy keflex online <a href=\"https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/keflex.html\">https:\/\/sballergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/jpg\/keflex.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p> In recent weeks, the insurgents have taken control of remote districts in Badakhshan province, and continue to launch mass attacks on districts in Kunduz province, a strategically located region bordering Tajikistan.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy has spread Afghan military resources very thin as U.S. and NATO forces ended their combat mission in the country at the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KABUL, Afghanistan &#8212; An Afghan official said Wednesday his government is examining claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":57643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-w","mauthors-lynne-odonnell","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283499,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57612\/revisions\/283499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}