Mullah Mohammed Omar |
Wiki |
Mullah Mohammed Omar (Pashto: ملا محمد عمر) (born c. 1959, Nodeh, near Kandahar) often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and was Afghanistan's de facto head of state, and was recognized by three states, from 1996 to 2001, under the official title of Head of the Supreme Council. He held the title Commander of the Faithful from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He is wanted by U.S. authorities for sheltering "Osama bin-Laden and his al-Qaeda network in the years prior to and the period during and immediately after the September 11 attacks". He is believed to be directing the Taliban in their war against Hamid Karzai's Government and foreign NATO troops in Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Despite his political rank, and his high status on the FBI's wanted list, not much is publicly known about Omar. Few photos, none of them official, exist of him and a picture used in 2002 by many media, has since been established to be another Taliban official. The authenticity of the existing images is debated. Apart from the fact that he is missing one eye, accounts of his physical appearance are contradictory: some people who have met him describe him as a tall man, while others describe him as small and frail. He has been described as shy and untalkative with foreigners.
During his tenure as Emir of Afghanistan, Omar seldom left Kandahar and rarely met with outsiders, instead relying on Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil for the majority of diplomatic necessities.