COUNTER TERRORISM: Taliban Leader Reported Dead for Years; Mumbai Bombing Money Man Executed

Mullah Omar Dead?

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lovelady)

The Afghan government made a surprising announcement Wednesday (July 29) that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban movement was dead — and had been for more than two years.

Officials said the one-eyed insurgent leader had died more than two years ago in a Pakistani hospital. He had not been seen in public since 2001, not long after the attacks of Sept. 11, carried out by a terrorist group to which he had given safe harbor. The New York Times has details here.

Analysts speculate that the Taliban leader’s death could spark defections from the Islamist insurgent group and might drive many to sign up with the hyper violent Islamist State gtoup, also known as ISIS and ISIL, according to CNN.

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Bomb Plot.

India has executed the man convicted of financing a deadly string of bombings in Mumbai in 1993.

Yakub Memon was hanged at a prison in Nagpur in the western state of Maharashtra, the BBC reported.

The serial blasts killed 257 people, and were allegedly to avenge the killing of Muslims in riots a few months earlier.

There was tight security around the Nagpur prison today (July 30), and in parts of the state capital, Mumbai.

The March 1993 blasts targeted a dozen sites, including the Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of national air carrier Air India and a luxury hotel.

India
(CIA World Factbook)