Word: omar
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...spring of 2001, Afghanistan was as rough a place as it ever is. Four sets of forces battled for position. Most of the country was under the authority of the Taliban, but it was not a homogeneous group. Some of its leaders, like Mullah Mohammed Omar, the self-styled emir of Afghanistan, were dyed-in-the-wool Islamic radicals; others were fierce Afghan nationalists. The Taliban's principal support had come from Pakistan--another interested party, which wanted a reasonably peaceful border to its west--and in particular from the hard men of the ISI. But Pakistan's policy...
...aftermath of that raid, coalition forces can hardly count on friendly tips from the mountain folk of Uruzgan, Zabul, Helmand and Kandahar provinces to help them close in on Omar. Many there sympathize with Omar. "They are his friends, he is their leader, and he is also their guest," says Mullah Gul Akhund, a police commander in Kandahar. "They must protect him." Should those bonds prove feeble, the Taliban know how to drive home the consequences of treachery. In mid-June, Mullah Bradar was seen on horseback in Helmand province, in the mountains near Washir. About the same time...
Knowing roughly where Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is hiding is one thing. Finding him is another. For months Afghan government and U.S. military sources have believed that the man who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden has found refuge of his own in an arc of inaccessible mountains north of Kandahar. It is a place where even a half-blind cleric on the run has factors in his favor: a harsh environment, strong tribal ties, loyal friends and a population increasingly disposed to hate the Americans. Little wonder, says a senior Kandahar police commander, that after months of searching...
...denied reports that the July 1 air operation that killed up to 48 civilians at a wedding party in the Deh Rawod district in southern Uruzgan province was a botched attempt to kill the Taliban leader. But a senior military official maintains that whatever the Pentagon has said subsequently, Omar was the original target: "They thought they had him." Omar is originally from Deh Rawod, and U.S. Army spokesman Major Gary Tallman told reporters in Afghanistan that "multiple intelligence sources" suggested he was in the area at the time of the U.S. raid. The bride at the devastated party...
...involved in Asia, the results have been ambiguous, at times shrouded in the confusion of a war with no clear objective or measure of victory. In Afghanistan, after a string of early victories, U.S. forces are still searching for traces of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban's Mullah Omar. To make matters worse, a whole lot of Afghans are howling for American scalps because of tragic collateral damage: innocent villagers killed in American raids...