MULLA M.OMARY HAS PASSED AWAY (THE TALIBAN LEADER)

            Afghan government officials said today that the one-eyed

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar is dead – a claim corroborated by a former senior Taliban official but not publicly confirmed by the U.S. government.

           Following international reports of Omar’s death this morning, Afghan government officials told ABC News today that Omar had died, but declined to provide details. In a hasty press conference, another Afghan government official from the president’s office said the government was investigating those reports.

         The former senior Taliban official ABC News Omar had died two years ago of tuberculosis and was buried in the restive region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

            Omar’s death two years ago was confirmed by Abdul Hassib Seddiqi, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, to The Associated Press. Seddiqi reportedly said Omar died in a Pakistani hospital in Karachi in April 2013.

             U.S. government agencies, including the White House’s National Security Council, did not respond to requests for clarification on Omar’s status. A Pentagon spokesperson said, "We are aware of media reports regarding the death of Mullah Omar. At this time we have no information to offer."

            Voice of America reported today that a Taliban spokesperson denied the reports, saying Omar is “very much alive.”

           The one-eyed Omar, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head, has eluded U.S. government forces for a decade and a half. Officially, the U.S. seeks his arrest because the Taliban provided al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden safe haven in Afghanistan both before and after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Taliban was declared a terrorist group in 2002 by Executive Order and has since been behind countless deadly attacks both on local civilian and Western targets.

           “Although Operation Enduring Freedom removed the Taliban regime from power, Mullah Omar remains at large and represents a continuing threat to America and her allies,” the U.S. State Department says on its Rewards for Justice website.

The Taliban and the Afghan government are currently in the midst of peace talks.

            Last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani thanked the reclusive Omar for endorsing the peace talks, which began earlier this month in Pakistan, where they were supervised by U.S. and Chinese representatives.