Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar has reportedly died.
The BBC, which first broke the news, said Afghan government officials and intelligence sources informed it that the reclusive leader – who the US placed a $10m million bounty on – died two to three years ago.
Although no further details have been released, the Afghan government will hold a press conference on the announcement on Wednesday afternoon.
Omar has been falsely reported as dead before. In 2011, local media in the country claimed he had been killed – reports later contradicted by Pakistani officials.
However, this announcement is the first to be confirmed by high-ranking Afghan officials. A Taliban spokesperson also said they would release a statement shortly.
Omar, who led the Taliban to victory over various militias following the Soviet withdrawal (during which he allegedly lost an eye to shrapnel), was made the ‘Supreme Leader’ of the Taliban movement in 1998.
His alliance with Osama Bin Laden prompted the invasion that would eventually depose him in 2001 and send him into hiding for over a decade, with a $10m bounty placed on his head by the US state department.
His last statement, released in early July, appears to back a fledging peace movement towards the Afghan government and the Taliban with the aim of removing foreign forces. It was noted that the statement differed from the usual either visual or audio recordings, and was instead a text document – fuelling more rumours he had died.
His alleged death comes as the Taliban faces some pressure from forces apparently allied to Isis, the self-declared Islamic State and amid worsening security in Afghanistan.