Reports Claim Mullah Omar Killed; Taliban Deny Reports

Less than a month after the US successfully carried out a raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, there are multiple reports claiming that Mullah Omar, one of the top Taliban leaders whose regime sheltered bin Laden in Afghanistan may have been killed.

The Afghan Taliban forcefully denied reports Monday that their leader is dead, dismissing them as "claims and rumors" from the "Kabul stooge regime's intelligence directorate."

Mullah Mohammed Omar "is alive and well and is leading the Mujahideen in all aspects while living safely with reliance on Allah," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

His statement came after suggestions that Omar might have been killed recently.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said Monday that Omar has disappeared in the past five days.

Lutfullah Mashal said he "hopes" Omar is dead but cannot confirm it.

"So far, we cannot confirm the death or killing of Mullah Omar officially. But we can confirm that he has been disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, Baluchistan" in Pakistan, he said.

"Our sources and senior Taliban members confirm that they can't contact him," Mashal said, adding that Omar had been living in Quetta for 10 years.

Taliban sources vociferously deny the reports.

It is interesting that the Pakistani sources claim that Omar was living in Quetta for the past decade. That's within spitting distance of the border with Afghanistan and the border provinces.

Pakistan Still Playing Both Sides In Afghanistan

The Washington Post has reported that Pakistan's ISI (its intelligence service) has managed to provide medical assistance to Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban that controlled Afghanistan and gave shelter to Osama bin Laden before 9/11. Of course, the Pakistani government and the ISI deny the report:

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was treated in hospital with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency after suffering a heart attack earlier this month, the Washington Post reported.

Citing "The Eclipse Group," a private network run by ex-CIA, State Department and military officials, the newspaper said the elusive Taliban chief spent several days at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

Most of the senior members of the Afghan Taliban, including Mullah Omar, fled to neighboring Pakistan when U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled their strict Islamist regime in late 2001.

'Some brain damage'
The firm said its source was a doctor, who was not identified. According to the report, Mullah Omar was "rushed" to hospital by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on Jan. 7.

"While I was not personally in the operating theater, my evaluation based on what I have heard and seeing the patient in the hospital is that Mullah Omar had a cardiac catheter complication resulting in either bleeding or a small cerebral vascular incident, or both," the Post quoted the doctor as saying.

"After the operation, there seemed to be some brain damage with Mullah Omar having slurred speech," he added.

The Eclipse Group's report said that "after 3-4 days of post-operative care in the hospital, he was released to the ISI and ordered to take absolute bed rest when at home for at least several days."

It said that Mullah Omar was staying at "an ISI 'guest house' in Karachi under ISI guard."

Pakistan continues to play the US for foreign assistance and military aid despite continuing to provide safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. They utilize the frontier provinces with impunity and carry out attacks inside Afghanistan and repeatedly threaten US and ISAF supply lines inside Pakistan.

Is Osama Bin Laden Dead? Benazir Bhutto Thought So!

In a November 2, 2007 interview with Sir David Frost on 'Frost Over the World', Benazir Bhutto states that Osama Bin Laden is dead, and Sheik Omar killed him. The video can be found on The Polijam Times website. Unfortunately, the interviewer does not follow up on the statement, which was made during a discussion of a then recent assassination attempt on her life. The revelation is made at the 6:13 minute mark of the video.

What did she know? Is she correct? Is Osama Bin Laden dead? Why was the statement never followed up on during the interview? Was she killed because she knew something she should not have known -- and said it during this interview? It has been speculated that Al Qaeda had a hand in her assassination. Could it have been true? Is this part of Scotland Yard's investigation?

The better question, why did the media never report on this? A major political person, such as Bhutto claims that one of the most wanted men in the world is dead at the hands of Sheik Omar, and not a word on any other web site. I only found out about it after meeting the creator of The PoliJam Times at a party this weekend. Where he found the video, I do not know.

The even better question, is she right? Is Osama visiting his 72 virgins? Did Sheik Omar have a hand in his death? If so, why kill Osama? Why kill him now? Was the most recent Osama Bin Laden message a fake, or recorded much earlier?

Many questions!

Taliban Thugs Seek New Direction

Since their efforts to overthrow the Afghan government haven't worked out as well as hoped, and the ongoing conflict in the NWFP and Warizistan Pakistan aren't gaining as much traction as hoped, Mullah Omar has publicly stated that he's replacing leading Taliban thug Mullah Dadullah.

At the end of 2007, the Afghan Taliban made a radical leadership change which has sparked controversy in the ranks of the terror group. On December 29, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed issued a statement that Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the commander for southern Afghanistan, was relieved of his command by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Dadullah stated he had no knowledge of the dismissal and claimed it was a "conspiracy by my enemies." Omar responded by issuing a signed statement ordering Dadullah's firing.

Omar's dismissal of Mansoor was published on Voice of Jihad, a well trafficked jihadi internet forum, ThreatsWatch's Nick Grace informed The Long War Journal. The release was signed by Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, the Ameer Al-Mu’meneen, or the commander of the faithful.

Dadullah claims that this is just a nasty plot by his enemies to undermine him.

NATO and the Afghan and Pakistani forces need to capitalize on the disharmony among the Taliban thugs - both by exploiting intel and breaking the chain of command.

Meanwhile, the Taliban setbacks continue. Five Taliban provide car swarm material as their car bomb blows up prematurely. They were hoping to kill many more civilians. The Taliban have stepped up efforts to slaughter Afghan civilians because they think this is how they're going to regain power in Afghanistan, but it's quite likely that they'll simply alienate the public, who realize that NATO and Afghan forces are trying to bring a sense of normalcy and calm to a country wracked by violence for more than 30 years. The Taliban are embarking on a strategy that has decimated the insurgency and al Qaeda in Iraq, and the results are not likely to differ.