On Wednesday, a high-level, unnamed Afghan intelligence source reported that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has died — two years ago.
Now the Afghan government is looking into the claims, because this isn't the first time the militant's been declared dead.
According to the report, Omar died two years ago from Tuberculosis, but if these claims are true, it means the Taliban published a biography of their supreme leader after he was already dead.
Let's back up.
In April of this year, the extremist group released a book about the Omar's life after he's served as their leader for 19 years. They claimed the book's release was to commemorate that milestone, but other analysts believed the move was aimed to combat growing support for Daesh (ISIS) among jihadists in Afghanistan, according to a report by the BBC.
BBC News - Afghan Taliban publish Mullah Omar biography http://t.co/URF49DBf3L
— Eltaf Najafizada (@EltafN) April 5, 2015
The 5,000-word biography covers everything from Omar's birthplace (the village of Chah-i-Himmat, in Afghanistan's Khakrez district), to his rise within Taliban ranks and a "special" sense of humor.
For journalists, this was a rare insight into the mysterious terror figure; some of the only images the world has seen of him appear in a grainy bit of footage secretly filmed by the BBC in 1996.
This death claim is strange for the same reason. Because if true, it means by the time news agencies were pouring over the details of his biography, he was already gone.
