Word: omar
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Year started with some old business in the U.S. war on terror - continuing the hunt for Taliban leaders and Osama bin Laden. Today, a contingent of 200 U.S. Marines conducted a 30-hour expedition to search a former compound of Taliban leader Mullah Omar in the Baghran area. The Marines were looking for anything that could lead the U.S. to Omar, who is believed to still be hiding somewhere in the Baghran area north of Kandahar...
...Afghan leaders and U.S. Special Forces personnel are reportedly negotiating for Omar's surrender. However, U.S. officials doubt he's ready to turn himself in, primarily because they believe Taliban officials are speaking on their own behalf, without Omar?s approval. "These are Taliban forces looking to negotiate themselves out of a predicament," said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem...
...Omar is rarely seen or heard and never photographed, and his word is law. A reluctant, inarticulate speaker, he knows little of the world outside Afghanistan. By some accounts, he had been to Kabul, his nation's capital, only a few times since taking power. As a leader, he was more concerned with enforcing rules about beards and kites and restricting the movement and rights of women than he was with the millions of Afghans on the brink of starvation...
After Sept. 11, Omar responded defiantly to Western pleas, ultimatums and then bombs, vowing that Taliban and al-Qaeda soldiers would never lay down their arms, and that he would never give up either himself or bin Laden. Town after town fell, and one militia commander after another defected. With anti-Taliban forces and U.S. jets pounding Kandahar, Omar tried to negotiate his own surrender in exchange for his freedom. The deal fell through, however, and Omar told his top commanders that they could make their own choice: stay and fight, or flee, as he planned...
...sense, he's lucky to be alive - assuming he still is. Early in the war, U.S. planes had his convoy targeted but didn't get clearance in time to take him out. Now Omar is in hiding, his messianic dream buried in the war's rubble...