Taliban denies death of its leader

The Afghan Taliban has denied media reports about the killing of their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, in Kabul.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said there was no truth in Afghan media reports that said Mullah Omar, one of the most wanted men in the world, has been killed.

He said the media in Afghanistan were “200 per cent wrong” to quote another Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf, in confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death.

He said: “Besides me, Qari Yousuf is also Taliban spokesman but has not spoken to any media channel to confirm the death of our supreme leader.”

The reclusive Taliban leader has a $10m bounty on his head, and this is not the first time he has been reported dead.

The latest reports came as British forces handed over control of a key city in Afghanistan’s Helmand province – one of the most violent areas in the country – to local forces. The Afghan police and army have been in effective control of Lashkar Gah for around a month, but today marks the official handover of security in the city.

‘Strange claims’

Talking from an undisclosed location by telephone, Mr Mujahid said the US had blocked all their websites and other services from 14 July, and that they knew the US and Afghan authorities would come out with some strange claims.

“And you saw they once again made this false claim of killing Mullah Omar, which is not true,” he claimed.

Qari Yousuf himself also denied speaking to any media.

“I was sleeping when my leadership awakened me this morning to explain how I had confirmed Mullah Omar’s death to an Afghan TV channel Tolo,” he said.

“I was surprised as I didn’t know what was going, but later learnt that they wrongly quoted me, which is not good journalism.”

Other reports suggested that the Taliban believed the false messages claiming Mullah Omar had died were sent to media after their mobile phones, email accounts and a website were hacked into.