Mullah Omar

Amir al-Mu'minin Mullah Muhammad Omar
محمد عمر
Mullah Omar in 1993
Supreme Leader of Afghanistan
In office 27 September 1996 – 13 November 2001 Disputed by Burhanuddin Rabbani (as President)
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani
Deputy	Mohammad Rabbani[1]
Preceded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (as President)
Succeeded by	Burhanuddin Rabbani (as President)
In exile 13 November 2001 – 23 April 2013
Deputy	Abdul Ghani Baradar[2] Obaidullah Akhund[3] Akhtar Mansour[4]
Succeeded by	Akhtar Mansour
In exile 4 April 1996[5] – 27 September 1996
Deputy	Mohammad Rabbani
Preceded by	Office established
Personal details
Born	1960[6] Kandahar, Afghanistan[7][8][9][10]
Died	(2013-04-23)23 April 2013 (aged 52–53) Zabul, Afghanistan[11] (disputed)
Cause of death	Tuberculosis[13][14][15]
Resting place	Shinkay District, Zabul Province, Afghanistan[12]
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)
Spouse	At least 3 wives
Children	At least 5 (including Mullah Yaqoob)
Relatives	Abdul Manan Omari (stepbrother)
Ethnicity	Pashtun
Tribe	Hotak
Religion	Sunni Islam
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Military service
Allegiance	Mujahideen (1979–1992) Hezb-i Islami Khalis (1979–1992)  Taliban (1994–2013)
Years of service	1979–1992 1994–2013
Battles/wars	Soviet–Afghan War Battle of Arghandab[16] First Afghan Civil War Battle of Jalalabad[17] Second Afghan Civil War Battle of Kabul (1992–1996) Third Afghan Civil War War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

Mullah Muhammad Omar (Pashto: محمد عمر, romanized: Muḥammad ʿUmar; 1960 – 23 April 2013) was an Afghan militant leader and cleric who was the founder of the Taliban, which he founded in 1994. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing the First Islamic Emirate for which Omar began to serve as Supreme Leader in 1996. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks, the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan, prompting Omar to go into hiding. He successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013 from tuberculosis.

Born into a religious family in Kandahar, Omar was educated at local madrasas in Afghanistan. After Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979, he joined the Afghan mujahideen to fight in the Soviet–Afghan War and he was trained by Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar (also known as Imam Tarar). He served as an important military commander during several skirmishes, losing his right eye in an explosion. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country in 1989 and Afghanistan's Soviet-backed Democratic Republic was toppled in 1992, triggering the Afghan Civil War of 1992–1996. While initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies, Omar became increasingly discontent with what he perceived as fasād in the country, ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War. In 1994, Omar, along with religious students in Kandahar, formed the Taliban, which emerged victorious against other Afghan factions by 1996. Omar led the Taliban to form a Sunni Islamic theocracy headed by the Supreme Council, known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which strictly enforced sharia. While ruling between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban were widely condemned for committing massacres against civilians; discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities; banning women from school and most employment; and the destruction of cultural monuments, including the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which Omar personally ordered.^[18]

After al-Qaeda, which had been given sanctuary in Afghanistan by the Taliban, carried out the September 11 attacks against the United States in 2001, American president George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban extradite al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden to the United States. When the Taliban refused, the United States began the Global War on Terrorism and led a multinational invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, greatly bolstered by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. By December 2001, the Taliban government had been ousted by the American-led coalition; Omar fled Kandahar, went into hiding in Zabul Province, and delegated operational control of the Taliban to his deputies. Under his command, the Taliban launched an insurgency against the new Afghan government and the coalition. Although Omar was the subject of a decade-long international manhunt, he remained in hiding for the rest of his life. He died in 2013, reportedly due to tuberculosis, which was not revealed publicly until 2015. In 2021, the Taliban deposed the Afghan government and regained power following the Fall of Kabul.

Omar remains a largely popular figure amongst the Taliban, who view him as a key freedom fighter who defended Afghanistan's Islamic principles — first against the Soviet empire and later against the Western world. Others have criticized him for his repressive government and his religious dogmatism.