Afghanistan says Taliban leader dead, urges peace talks

KABUL, (Reuters) - Afghanistan said yesterday that Mullah Omar, the elusive leader of the Taliban movement fighting to topple the government, died more than two years ago.

The announcement came a day or so before a second round of peace talks had been tentatively scheduled, and news of the fate of the one-eyed Omar could deepen Taliban divisions over whether to pursue negotiations with Kabul and who should replace him.

Omar had not been seen in public since fleeing when the Taliban was toppled from power by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, and there has been speculation for years among militant circles that he was either incapacitated or had died.

“The government ... based on credible information, confirms that Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban, died in April 2013 in Pakistan,” the presidential palace said in a brief statement, without specifying what the information was.

“The government of Afghanistan believes that grounds for the Afghan peace talks are more paved now than before, and thus calls on all armed opposition groups to seize the opportunity and join the peace process.”

The Taliban’s regular spokesman could not be reached for comment through normal channels.

The White House said it was aware of reports of the death of Omar and believed them to be “credible”. Spokesman Eric Schultz said U.S. intelligence continued to look into the matter.

Preparations had been under way for the next round of talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, provisionally planned for Thursday or Friday in a location yet to be confirmed.

President Ashraf Ghani is keen to broker a settlement with the insurgents, who have been gaining territory in pockets of the country and intensifying their attacks on military and political targets.

U. S. officials did not respond when asked to assess the effect of the announcement of Omar’s death on the talks, which the United States has backed, but analysts said it could further fragment the Taliban movement and make peace even more elusive.

They said it represented a setback for President Barack Obama’s aim for a smooth withdrawal from Afghanistan, a country in which U.S. troops have been engaged since 2001 and could also benefit the Islamic State movement.

“For the United States it’s clearly a big blow, because its whole Afghan withdrawal plan has been based on the fiction that you had a reconciliation process going on,” said Frederic Grare, head of the South Asia programme at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Grare and Thomas Sanderson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank both said it was possible the announcement from Kabul was the result of institutional infighting there and an attempt to upset or influence the talks.